Marine Natural Products: A Themed Issue in Honor of Professor John Blunt and Professor Murray Munro

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue of Marine Drugs is dedicated to Professors John W. Blunt and Murray H. G. Munro, two pioneering New Zealand natural products researchers from the University of Canterbury who have made tremendous contributions to advance the science and support the marine natural products research community at large. They have successfully worked together throughout their careers as a collaborative pair of scientists, combining their individual talents, interests, and insights in a productive and synergistic manner that exemplifies the true spirit of scientific cooperation. Drs. Munro and Blunt are superb natural product discovery and structural elucidation chemists who also incorporated sophisticated biological screening and characterization studies as a key component of their scientific efforts. Their joint research program is focused largely on the chemistry of New Zealand marine invertebrates and microbes, and it has resulted in the discovery of a large number of new metabolites, many of which display unique molecular architectures or potent biological properties. In addition to marine organisms, John and Murray have also investigated the chemistry of assorted terrestrial fungi, and they are well known in the natural products community for their pioneering advances in the development and application of micro-scale NMR-based dereplication methods for selecting and prioritizing natural product samples. Memorable discoveries by this productive team of researchers include diverse compounds such as the dischorhabdins, mycalamides, variolins, cladobotric acids, spiromycins, pteratides, isohomohalichondrin B, pateamine, coproverdine, and spiro-mamakone A.

As a complement to the many new bioactive compounds they identified, Drs. Blunt and Munro also focused on the biological characterization and subsequent development of marine metabolites as potential therapeutic agents. Notable efforts in this regard include extensive preclinical studies of variolin B, which were done in conjunction with the Spanish pharmaceutical company PharmaMar SA. The discovery by Murray and John of a new source of halichondrin B in the New Zealand marine sponge Lissodendoryx sp., coupled with the productive utilization of this resource, ultimately provided the U.S. National Cancer Institute (NCI) with sufficient material to conduct critical in vivo efficacy studies. Halichondrin B was thus shown to be a powerful new anticancer agent, and these findings, along with synthetic access to the natural product and a series of analogues pioneered by the Kishi group at Harvard, paved the way for the successful development of the approved anticancer drug Erubilin (Halaven) by Eisai Pharmaceuticals.

In addition to their memorable natural product discovery and development efforts, John Blunt and Murray Munro made many valuable contributions to support and advance the broad field of marine natural products. They initiated, maintained, and expanded the well-known MarinLit database that researchers world-wide use as an invaluable tool in their own marine natural product programs. This database of publications in the marine natural products field grew to include not only references and structures, but other important features such as spectroscopic data, biological activity, and information on the source organism as well as the collection location. MarinLit was initiated in 1985 and maintained by John and Murray until 2013, when it was acquired by the Royal Society of Chemistry. They also took over, from the late D. John Faulkner, the annual Marine Natural Products review published in the journal Natural Products Reports, and served as coordinating authors from 2003–2018. Virtually everyone involved in marine natural products studies has utilized and benefitted from these vital community resources that Murray and John put so much time, effort, and thought into.

Murray Munro received his Ph.D. from the University of Otago, New Zealand, and did post-doctoral studies with Professor Sir Alan Battersby at the University of Liverpool before starting his independent academic career at the University of Canterbury in 1968. John Blunt earned his Ph.D. at the University of Canterbury, was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin, USA, and Oxford University, U.K., and in 1970, he returned to the University of Canterbury to begin his faculty career in the Department of Chemistry. In 1976, Murray and John joined together to launch a program for the discovery of bioactive natural products from marine sources. This highly successful collaborative endeavor was maintained for the remainder of their research careers. John and Murray have received numerous honors and distinctions throughout the years, including being joint recipients of the Paul J. Scheuer Award from the 2008 Gordon Research Conference on Marine Natural Products and the Norman R. Farnsworth Research Achievement Award in 2011 from the American Society of Pharmacognosy.

When one thinks of marine natural product studies in New Zealand, the contributions of John Blunt and Murray Munro immediately come to mind. They pioneered the initial chemistry efforts, and quickly showed that marine organisms in New Zealand waters are a rich source of novel structural diversity and important biologically active metabolites. They produced an impressive legacy of important natural product discoveries and also mentored many of the New Zealand scientists who continue to engage in natural product studies. I have had the pleasure to know and work with both John and Murray since my early days at the NCI. From the very beginning of our long-lasting interactions, I was impressed with their diligence, productivity, and collaborative approach to research. They demonstrated an expansive knowledge of natural product chemistry, spectroscopy, and related disciplines that strongly influenced my own research efforts. Their outstanding cooperative research program and their commitment and service to the greater marine natural products community has helped shape and inform contemporary natural products studies. The Munro and Blunt research team exemplifies the true spirit of collaborative science, with a diversity in interests and a commitment to excellence in the field of natural products that we can all be proud of. Cheers to Murray Munro and John Blunt for the well-deserved honor and recognition of a Special Issue of Marine Drugs dedicated to their careers and accomplishments in advancing the study and development of marine natural products.

Prof. Dr. Shigeki Matsunaga
Dr. Kirk R. Gustafson
Dr. David J. Newman
Guest Editors

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