From Cell Signalling to Anticancer Drug Discovery: A Theme Issue in Honor of Professor Barry Potter

Dear Colleagues,

Innovative drug discovery is often underpinned by breakthroughs in academic research. However, few successful academic researchers go on to also become successful drug discoverers. Professor Barry Potter is an outstanding example of this rare breed.

During a research career spanning over 40 years, Professor Potter has made numerous important contributions to both fundamental and translational research in medicinal chemistry, chemical biology and drug discovery. His laboratory has developed an arsenal of chemical tools that have enabled new and fundamental insights into the role of second messengers such as inositol phosphates, cyclic adenosine 5'-diphosphate ribose (cADPR), adenosine 5'-diphosphate ribose (ADPR) and nicotinic acid adenine-5'-diphosphate-2'-phosphate (NAADP) for calcium signalling.

He has also successfully used chemistry to study the key role of steroid biosynthetic enzymes in hormone-dependent cancers. This research has not only led to the identification of novel drug targets and therapeutic concepts in anti-cancer drug discovery but has also laid the foundation for the successful translation of basic science into clinical drug candidates. To date, “first-in class” agents from the Potter laboratory have been evaluated in 19 Phase I and II human clinical trials, including the steroid sulfatase inhibitor Irosustat.

Professor Potter has received numerous awards for his work, including the Medal for Chemical Biology and the Malcolm Campbell Medal from the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), the GlaxoSmithKline International Achievement Award, and the European Life Sciences Award. He has also held the RSC-BMCS Medicinal Chemistry Lectureship, and he is a recipient of the Tu Youyou Award in Medicinal & Natural Product Chemistry.

This Special Issue of Molecules is dedicated to Professor Potter on the occasion of his retirement. It brings together topical research across the different research areas on which Professor Potter has left an indelible mark, including synthetic nucleotide and inositol phosphate chemistry, calcium signalling, aromatase and steroid sulfatase inhibitor development, and anti-cancer drug discovery. It will serve, we hope, as an inspiration for both basic science and drug discovery.

Prof. Marie Migaud
Prof. Gerd Wagner
Guest Editors

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