Abstract:  As a consequence of major advances at the level of methodology, the power of the science of chemical synthesis has grown enormously. These huge advances in enabling reactions, often involving transition metal catalysts, have had a major impact on strategic planning in chemical synthesis. Structures hitherto perceived to be unavailable from a practical standpoint through chemical synthesis might, in fact, be quite available nowadays. 

Similarly, extraordinary advances in isolation techniques, purification techniques and above all assignment of structure to complex molecules have allowed for the identification and determination of exciting new natural products in very small-scale (milligrams or less). By combining these two advances with extraordinary advances in the science of screening for biological properties, the natural products field emerges in highly enhanced form as a potential resource in the discovery of new pharmaceutical agents of value. Regrettably, many Pharma organizations have seen fit to de-emphasize their involvement in Natural Products, just at the time when its prospects were the most promising ever.

In this lecture we show, by example, how advances in synthetic methodology, structure determination, and screening have created extraordinary opportunities for natural products as resources in the discovery of new drugs and vaccines.

Biography:   Samuel Danishefsky is a native of Bayonne, NJ, receiving his B.S.degree from Yeshiva University in 1956. He then attended Harvard, where he received his doctorate in 1962, later doing an NIH postdoctorate at Columbia University, from 1961-1963. He then spent 1964-1979 at the University of Pittsburgh, where he became University Professor in 1978.  He then went to Yale University, where he was Eugene Higgins Professor (1983-89) and Sterling Professor (1989-1993). In 1993, he returned to Columbia as professor of Chemistry, Eugene Kettering Professor, and director of the bioorganic laboratory of the Sloan - Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, a position that he holds presently.

He has received world-wide acclaim for his work in organic total synthesis of some of the most complex natural products, most of which are known to have significant physiological activity. Most of the syntheses require numerous stereoselective steps in order to obtain the desired stereospecificty.  Some of his most recent work -- an account of which was given recently in Chemical & Engineering News, Jan. 23, 2006, p. 7, -- described the synthesis of a telomerase inhibitor, known as UCS 1025A. Telomeres, telomerase and telomerase inhibitors are believed to be intimately involved in chromosomes, cancer, cell death and renewal, stem cells, ageing, i.e., some of life's most vital processes. Having a known inhibitor readily available will allow scientists to study these very important processes at the molecular level.

There are very few areas involving the synthesis of physiologically-active organic molecules that have not come under attack by Dr. Danishefsky at some time during his long and productive career: anti-tumor carbohydrate vaccines, several classes of anti-tumor chemotherapeutic agents, antibiotics, antivirals, angiogenesis agents, antiimmune agents, and on and on. In general, he is at the forefront of those approaches that blend the best chemical and biological science to obtain solutions to some of the most pressing problems of our time that involve disease treatment and prevention.

For his work and the more than six hundred publications that have resulted from it, he has received many awards, including most of the ACS Awards related to organic chemistry, including just to name a few, the Hudson Award in Carbohydrate Chemistry, Arthur Cope Scholar and Medal, the Guenther Prize, and the Aldrich Award for creative work in Organic Chemistry. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is a fellow of numerous foreign academies. He has received the Wolf prize in Chemistry, and has been chosen for many named lectures. It is in that role, as our Stieglitz Lecturer, that we welcome him on this occasion. We are indeed pleased and honored to have this most distinguished chemical scientist to come and speak to us.