e last 30 years has seen an explosive growth of natural products from marine organisms that have been characterised by the isolation and structure elucidation of unusual and beautiful structures with no precedent in terrestrial natural products. These compounds are invariably described with some sort of biological activity, which hints at their natural role. The cellular receptors for these compounds is rarely described unless the compound actually enters preclinical trials. This fact belies a tremendous waste of resources in terms of lead compounds in drug design and discovery. Our research is aimed at not only the isolation of novel natural products but the isolation of their biological receptors. If this were possible using a fast and efficient method then there would be no impediment to the simultaneous isolation of natural products and their receptors. This pair could be used to reveal the function of the protein and as leads in structure based design. A useful addition would be to simultaneously isolate the gene, which would facilitate cloning and over expression of the target and linking the phenotype to the genotype.

The search for bioactive compounds from marine organisms is still a relatively new field because of the difficulties involved in collecting samples and that there is virtually no ethnobotanical data to draw on. However, the biodiversity of the marine environment far exceeds that of its terrestrial counterpart so the oceans represent an enormous resource for new biologically active compounds (biodiversity = chemical diversity). In a recent NCI study, marine animals were 10x more likely to contain selective cytotoxicity activity than terrestrial plants, animals or microorganisms. Of the marine phyla, sponges have the highest hit-rate. Of the 15 marine natural products currently in clinical trials (Modern Drug Discovery, 2002, 22, 419), one-third come from animals collected in Australia or Papua New Guinea. Yet, relatively little natural products chemistry is done here and even less is funded through national competitive grants.

Scholarships for work toward a PhD, MSc, MSc(Hon) and Honours degrees are available for this and all other projects through the Australian Government (APA, APAI, RTS, IPRS), Macquarie (RAACE, iMURS, MUPGRA) or Chemistry Department (Honours Scholarships, Vacation Scholarships). Please use the links of contact the Department for more details