DRA Lecture: A Lifetime in Natural Products Research

<typohead type=4 align=left>Friday, June 25th, 2004 at 13:00 in Auditorium 3</typohead>

The Danish University of Pharmaceutical Sciences Universitetsparken 2, 2100 Copenhagen O

Centennial Professor of Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, Columbia University

Professor Koji Nakanishi has developed new spectroscopic methods to analyze natural products, helping to isolate and determine the structure of more than 180 biologically active compounds produced by animals, plants, insects and microorganisms, and often suggesting commercial and therapeutic uses for them as well. Since 1975, Nakanishi's research has concentrated on the interaction of light with the molecules responsible for vision-studies likely to accelerate the development of a treatment for macular degeneration, which affects many elderly people and leads to the loss of sight. With his current group of graduate students, he is also studying the effects of gingko biloba extract on neurological disorders. Professor Nakanishi is the author of 750 papers and the author, co-author or editor of nine books, including his 1991 autobiography, A Wandering Natural Products Chemist. He has won numerous awards, most recently the prestigious King Faisal International Prize in Science. Nakanishi is also an accomplished amateur magician, and has been known to enliven faculty meetings and academic conferences with sleight of hand and other diversions.

The lecture is organised by: Kristian Strømgaard (the Danish University of Pharmaceutical Sciences) and is open for attendance by all interested parties.