Isolation and Synthesis of Bioactive Natural Products from Marine Sources

This area of the collaborative research programme is inherently linked to and dependant on the results of the screening activities of the other groups. The work entails the purification of the active isolates and the elucidation of the chemical structure(s) of the active component(s) through the use of the full range of modern spectroscopic and analytical techniques. More extensive bioactivity screening can then commence and the chemistry can be expanded to the preparation of potentially more active analogues of the lead compounds discovered. The process becomes iterative thereafter with the structure(s) of the active compound(s) becoming targets for synthetic chemistry to prepare more substantial quantities of natural product(s) and closely related structures. The training of a PhD researcher in this field will begin to address the critical gap in expertise in Ireland in the field of natural products chemistry, and in particular in marine natural products chemistry.