Foreword

The 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to William C. Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura for their discovery of avermectins and to Youyou Tu for her discovery of artemisinin. These therapies have revolutionized the treatment of devastating parasitic diseases.

Professor Satoshi Ōmura performs comprehensive research in natural products and bioorganic chemistry with a focus on bioactive substances of microbial origin. He has developed new methods for isolating and culturing microorganisms and has established many original methods for screening bioactive substances. He has also discovered more than 500 novel compounds, including the globally significant anthelmintic antibiotic avermectins through collaborative research with the Merck group (U.S.A.). One avermectin derivative, ivermectin, proved to be a safe and highly effective anthelmintic agent and was put on the Animal Health market in 1981, becoming the best-selling animal drug to date. Ivermectin is also effective in humans and was donated free of charge by the Merck group for the treatment of onchocerciasis (river blindness), a disease that affects millions of people, mostly those living in poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. Global programs are currently in progress for the elimination of two tropical diseases, river blindness and lymphatic filariasis, and some 300 million people, mostly those in the world’s poorest and most disadvantaged communities, take ivermectin tablets annually. Professor Ōmura has also discovered other important chemotherapeutic agents and biological tools, including the antibiotics leucomycin, rokitamycin, and nanaomycin, as well as widely-used enzyme inhibitors such as staurosporine, cerulenin, herbimycin, and lactacystin, among others. In addition to the discovery of over 21 compounds widely used as medical, veterinary, and agricultural products, his group has also mapped the entire genome of the avermectin-producing organism Streptomyces avermectinius.

I would like to mention briefly about personal relationship to Professor Ōmura. In April 1988, after my post-doctoral experience, I feel very fortunate that I was offered an interview with the Kitasato Institute. Professor Ōmura took time out of his busy schedule to meet me, and simply said, “OK. You are accepted.” Although the research period was only one year, I was able to work on the isolation, structural determination, and biosynthesis of natural products. Professor Ōmura kindly spoke with me whenever I would see him, and to this day, has provided me with immeasurable support in numerous ways. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Professor Ōmura and wholeheartedly congratulate him for winning the Nobel Prize.

To celebrate Professor Satoshi Ōmura, an honorary member of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Kitasato University, for receiving the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the Journal Editorial Committee of the Pharmaceutical Society of Japan has proposed a special project to publish a collection of research papers in the journal Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin to be submitted by the society members. I was honored to have been appointed by the Journal Editorial Committee as a guest editor to organize this special collection of papers alongside the guest co-editor, Professor Toshiaki Sunazuka of Kitasato University. For the project, I requested the submission of manuscripts from members of the society studying natural products and synthetic organic chemistry and was pleased with the response. A wide selection of excellent papers were submitted, and thanks to the efforts of the cooperating authors, as well as the reviewers who conducted timely evaluations of the submissions, a number of these papers are published in this issue as a special collection.

As a guest editor, I would be extremely happy if this special collection offers a valuable contribution to pharmaceutical research based on organic and natural products chemistry.

Note

Special Section Celebrating Professor Satoshi Ōmura’s 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Guest Editors: Masami Ishibashi and Toshiaki Sunazuka