2022 Norman R. Farnsworth Lecture | Dr. David Newman

The collegiate Farnsworth Lectureship in Pharmacognosy is hosted in memory of Norman R. Farnsworth, who was one of the College's most dedicated pharmacy educators and internationally renowned, transformational pharmacognosy researchers. His scientific and educational contributions relate to the chemistry, biology, and therapeutic properties of medicinal plants and natural products. The Farnsworth Lecture is hosted every year, typically in late March, by the UIC Pharmacognosy Institute on behalf of the UIC College of Pharmacy (see History of Farnsworth Lectures since 2013).

The 9th Farnsworth Lecture will be held on March 25, 2022 (13:30 ET/12:30 CT/11:30MT/10:30 PT; 19:30 CET; UTC-6h; see world time zone map here), by Dr. David J. Newman of the NCI/NIH and is entitled
"Are microbes the “true” sources of bioactive compounds isolated from multi-celled organisms such as plants and marine invertebrates?".

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In his lecture, Dr. Newman will show how, over time, insight has grown that the biological composition of what is widely considered a single organisms, such as a medicinal plant, is in fact complex ecosystem populated with microorganisms, which  contribute to the "single" host organism and are essential for the overall medicinal potential of the "producing organism".

Dr. Newman is a globally renowned scholar with a vast knowledge in natural products, which has come from over 55 years of research in industry and governmental laboratories in both the UK and the USA, for enzyme inhibitors/activators, antimicrobial and anti-tumor lead compounds mainly from natural product sources. Dr. Newman is key author of a series of very highly cited review articles published primarily in the Journal of Natural Products, the most recent being: Newman, D. J.; Cragg, G. M. Natural Products as Sources of New Drugs over the Nearly Four Decades from 01/1981 to 09/2019. Journal of Natural Products, 83, 770-803 (2020) [DOI; 10.1021/acs.jnatprod.9b01285]. Dr. Newman has been instrumental in establishing and developing the NCI Natural Products Branch (NPB) and its NCI National Products Repository, both of which are currently contributing to NIH's Cancer Moonshot Initiative. His broad knowledge in the field of natural products is reflected in over 260 publications, including 180+ journal articles with >27,000 citations, and an h-factor of 53.