Abstract

Natural Product Chemistry for Drug Discovery provides a comprehensive summary of where natural product chemistry is today in drug discovery. The book covers emerging technologies and case studies and is a source of up-to-date information on the topical subject of natural products. Natural products are once again considered important tools in the drug discovery toolbox. The authors are all experts in their respective fields of natural product chemistry. The book will appeal across the board from scientists to professionals, postgraduates and industrial chemists. The case studies selected for inclusion highlight recently marketed drugs and development candidates that have been derived from natural products. These 'real-life' examples show how new technologies, such as advances in screening, isolation, dereplication and prefractionation, have significantly enhanced the discovery process.
Dr A.D. Buss graduated from the Royal Institute of Chemistry before receiving his MSc from the University of East Anglia and then a PhD from the University of Cambridge. He started his career in the pharmaceutical industry with Pfizer before moving to Schering Agrochemicals as a Team Leader. In 1989, he joined Glaxo as Research Manager prior to becoming Head of the Natural Products Discovery Department and, finally, Research Unit Head, Bioprocessing, in 1995. During this period, Dr. Buss served as Chairman of the GlaxoWellcome (UK) Research Management Team and Chairman of the Joint Project Team (combinatorial polyketide biosynthesis) for what was GlaxoWellcome's largest research collaboration with the University of Cambridge. In 2000, he became head of the Centre for Natural Product Research at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Singapore and, on the Centre's privatisation to MerLion Pharmaceuticals in May 2002, became its President and Chief Executive Officer. Dr Buss is the author or co-author of over fifty peer reviewed scientific publications. Dr Mark S. Butler received his BSc (Hons) and PhD from The University of Melbourne. After postdoctoral work at the Arizona State University, he joined the Queensland Pharmaceutical Research Institute (now Natural Product Research). He then moved to Singapore to lead the Natural Product Chemistry group at the Centre of Natural Product Research (CNPR), which was part of the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB). In 2002, CNPR privatized to become MerLion Pharmaceuticals where his present position is Director of Natural Product Chemistry. He has contributed to over 40 papers on various aspects of natural products chemistry and, in 2002, was awarded the Matt Suffness (Young Investigator) Award by the American Society of Pharmacognosy. His research interests include isolation, structure elucidation, absolute configuration and mechanism of natural products and development of natural product leads into pharmaceuticals, as well as separation of compounds using liquid-liquid chromatography and large-scale isolation of natural products.