Rev. bras. farmacogn. vol.25 número6

RevistaBrasileiradeFarmacognosia25(2015)567–568

w w w . s b f g n o s i a . o r g . b r / r e v i s t a

Editorial

Marine

natural

products

夽

RosângeladeAlmeidaEpifaniostartedherscientificcareerat theUniversidadeFederaldo Rio deJaneiro(UFRJ) asan under-graduatepharmacystudent(1984).ShegotherMasters(1988)and PhD(1992)degreesinOrganicChemistryunderthesupervisionof Prof.AngeloC.Pinto.ShereceivedtheAmbriexAwardoftheSão PauloSocietyofPharmacyandChemistryin1988.DuringherPhD, shediscoveredhertruestpassioninscience:thechemistryofthe marineenvironment.

At that time, studies of marine natural products in Brazil werejust emerging and includedsomepapers on theisolation of steroids, diterpenes and sesquiterpenes, mainly from echin-oderms, cnidarians, sponges, tunicates, molluscs and algae. To pursueherdream,RosângelaspentayearduringherPhDatthe “IstitutodiChimicaBiomolecolare,ConsiglioNazionaledelleRicerche” (Naples,Italy)withtheco-supervisionofDr.GuidoCimino,awell knownresearcher in this field. Together, theydeveloped some ofthefirststudiesonthechemicalecologyofnudibranchs and sponges.

ShejoinedtheDepartmentofOrganicChemistryofthe Univer-sidadeFederalFluminense(UFF)in1992wheresheremainedfor herentirecareer.WithfellowshipfundingfromtheInternational FoundationforScience(Sweden)in1993,shejoinedProf.William Fenical’sgroupatSIO-UCSD(CA,USA).Duringthisperiodshe devel-opedastrongcollaborativeprograminmarinechemicalecology thatresultedinaseriesofexpeditionstotheCaboFrioarea,Ilha Grande,theAbrolhosIslandsandFernandodeNoronha.Shewas alsoanenthusiasticparticipantonseveralship-boardexpeditions totheBahamasIslands.

In 1995, Prof. Rosângela received a PADCTII-EQF grant that allowedhertoinitiateindepthresearchinthechemistryand ecol-ogyofBrazilianmarineinvertebratesatUFF.Sincethattime,she guideddozensofScientificInitiationstudents,threemaster’s stu-dentsandonePhDstudentresultinginthepublicationof40plus scientificarticles.ThechemistryoftheoctocoralCarijoariisei(Fig.1) isagoodexampleofhercontributiontothemarinenatural prod-uctsresearchinBrazil.Forherworkinnaturalproductschemistry andmarinechemicalecology,in2000shereceivedtheFirstPrize inScienceandTechnologyinCategoryJuniorResearcherin Nat-uralProducts,OswaldoCruzFoundationandEMSSigmaPharma Group.

Fromthemiddleofthe2000s,Prof.Rosângelafoundanew inspi-ration,thediffusionofscientificknowledge.Shecreatedbeautiful

夽_{DedicatedtothememoryofProf.RosângeladeAlmeidaEpifanio(1962–2014).}

textsandlecturesinsimplelanguage,withthesamededicationas ifshewascreatingascholarlyscientificpaper.Thisworkillustrated Prof.Rosângela’s,dedicationandperfectiontotheextreme,andit waswiththiscarethatsheconceivedandfoundedtheRevista Vir-tualdeQuímica-RVq,fromtheBrazilianChemicalSociety,launched in2009atthe32ndAnnualMeetingoftheSBQ.

Dedicatingthisissueofthejournalisawaytocelebratethe pio-neeringcontributionofDr.Epifaniotothemarinenaturalproducts fieldinBrazil.Brazilianandforeignresearchersthatcollaborated withProf.Rosângeladuringherbrief,butverysignificantcareer, wereinvitedtopresentpapersontheirstudiescombiningdifferent aspectsofmarineenvironmentchemistry.

The research on marine environment has gained increasing attentionduring thepast 50 years, demonstrating theamazing biological and chemical diversity of the world’s oceans. Color-ful,soft-bodied,sessilemarineinvertebrates,andmore recently marine microbes, have been shown to be a prolific source of

Fig.1.PhotographofoctocoralCarijoariisei.Author:TitoMonteirodaCruzLotufo.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bjp.2015.09.004

568 Editorial/RevistaBrasileiradeFarmacognosia25(2015)567–568

naturalproductswithbiomedicalpotential.Theinfluenceofthese metabolitesondrugdiscoveryanddevelopmentwassignificantly feltin the pastyears withthe approval of ziconotide(Prialt®_),

trabectedin (Yondelis®_{), the halicondrin B derivative eribulin}

mesylate (Halaven®_{), and the antibody conjugate brentuximab}

vedotin(SGN-35,Adcetris®_{),whileanincreasingnumberofmarine}

naturalproductscontinuetoenterhumanclinicaltrials. Rosân-gela’ssignificantcontributionstothisfieldhelpedtoprovidethe foundationinBrazilforourcurrentprogressinthisfield.

Conflictsofinterest

Theauthorsdeclarenoconflictsofinterest.

NorbertoP.Lopesa,∗,ClaudiaM.Rezendeb, LeticiaV.Costa-Lotufoc_{,WilliamFenical}d

a_{UniversidadeSãoPaulo,RibeirãoPreto,SP,Brazil} b_{UniversidadeFederaldoRiodeJaneiro,RiodeJaneiro,RJ,Brazil} c_{UniversidadeSãoPaulo,SãoPaulo,SP,Brazil} d_{ScrippsInstitutionofOceanography,UniversityofCaliforniainSan}

Diego,UnitedStates

∗_{Correspondingauthor.}