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Monday, March 20, 2006 Scripps Marine Chemist Receives Highest Award in Natural Products Chemistry William Fenical honored at American Chemical Society meeting Scripps Institution of Oceanography / University of California, San Diego William Fenical, a professor of oceanography at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, will be awarded the Ernest Guenther Award in the Chemistry of Natural Products by the American Chemical Society (ACS) on March 28 at the 231st ACS national meeting in Atlanta. William Fenical The Ernest Guenther Award, which grants recipients $5,000, is presented "to recognize and encourage outstanding achievements in analysis, structure elucidation and chemical synthesis of natural products." Previous Ernest Guenther Award winners include Nobel Prize winners Sir Derek H. R. Barton, Konrad E. Bloch, Elias J. Corey and John W. Cornforth. The award was first bestowed in 1949 and is named for Ernest Guenther, author of Essential Oils, a six-volume reference on the methods for analysis of essential oils and their individual chemical constituents, and the oils' history, chemistry, biological origin and functions. Guenther was vice president and technical director of Givaudan, one of the oldest and largest flavor and fragrance houses in the world. Givaudan has sponsored the Guenther Award since 1992. "Bill Fenical is a true pioneer of marine natural products chemistry, one of the first to see the great potential to benefit humanity from the study of marine organisms, particularly in the area of drug discovery," said Charles Kennel, director of Scripps. "As the rate of discovery of new drugs from land organisms slows down, our marine resources will become ever more critical and valuable, something Fenical has understood for over 30 years. Bill is also a wonderful communicator of his science, earning the respect of specialists and laypersons equally."  William Fenical with samples Fenical's latest research exploring the microorganisms from the ocean sea floor has uncovered a treasure trove of potential new drugs. From a deep ocean site near the Bahamas, he discovered a bacterium that produces a potent anticancer agent, nearing human clinical trials, that targets multiple myeloma. Fenical also discovered a new anti-inflammatory drug derived from a soft coral. This drug, Pseudopterosin, is currently used in skin creams and is in line for development for the treatment of human skin diseases. In 2004, Fenical received the National Cancer Institute's highly respected Merit Award for his discovery of the production of new antibiotics and antitumor agents by deep ocean sediment bacteria. Separately, on March 30 at the ACS national meeting, Scripps scientist William Gerwick will make a presentation, titled, "Halogenation in the cyanobacteria: Novel natural products and their biosynthesis." Gerwick holds a joint professorship with Scripps and the UCSD Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. His research focuses on the unique natural products of marine algae and cyanobacteria and their application in various areas of biomedicine. He received his Ph.D. from Scripps in 1981 as a graduate student with Fenical, and came to UCSD in 2005 after spending more than 20 years on the faculty of the College of Pharmacy at Oregon State University. The American Chemical Society was founded in 1876 and now has more than 158,000 members at all degree levels and in all fields of chemistry. The organization provides a broad range of opportunities for peer interaction and career development, regardless of professional or scientific interests. Scripps Institution of Oceanography:scripps.ucsd.edu Scripps News on the web:scrippsnews.ucsd.edu # # # Note to broadcast and cable producers: University of California, San Diego provides an on-campus satellite uplink facility for live or pre-recorded television interviews. Please phone or e-mail the media contact listed above to arrange an interview. Scripps Institution of Oceanography, at University of California, San Diego, is one of the oldest, largest and most important centers for global science research and education in the world. The National Research Council has ranked Scripps first in faculty quality among oceanography programs nationwide. Now in its second century of discovery, the scientific scope of the institution has grown to include biological, physical, chemical, geological, geophysical and atmospheric studies of the earth as a system. Hundreds of research programs covering a wide range of scientific areas are under way today in 65 countries. The institution has a staff of about 1,300, and annual expenditures of approximately $155 million from federal, state and private sources. Scripps operates one of the largest U.S. academic fleets with four oceanographic research ships and one research platform for worldwide exploration. |
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