The Pharmacist / Spring 2022 / Volume 44 / Issue 2

Dr. David Newman Brings Microbes to a
Plant Party (a.k.a. the Farnsworth Lecture)
BY JESSICA CANLAS
Professor Guido Pauli, director of the Pharmacognosy
Institute, believes Newman is a perfect speaker for the
event as his work reflects the late Norm Farnsworth’s
dedication to natural products, as well as a depth of
knowledge that speaks to more than 65 years in his field.
“You can’t get a better speaker for a natural products
seminar,” says Pauli, who also happens to hold the title
of Norman R. Farnsworth Professor of Pharmacognosy.
“David Newman has a vast and broad knowledge—and
is a very entertaining presenter.”
In his lecture, provisionally titled “Are Microbes the
‘True’ Sources of Bioactive Compounds Isolated from
Multicelled Organisms Such as Plants and Marine
Invertebrates?” Newman intends to speak about the
involvement of microbes in the production of what were
originally thought to be biologically active compounds
produced by the organism from which they were isolated.
Dr. David Newman
Hosted by the UIC Pharmacognosy Institute, the annual
Norman Farnsworth Lecture honors the legacy of one
of the college’s most distinguished educators and
pharmacognosy researchers, globally renowned as
an iconic figure in the study of medicinal plants and
natural products.
This year, the college is honored to host Dr. David
Newman, former chief of the Natural Products Branch
(NPB) in the Developmental Therapeutics Program of
the National Cancer Institute (NCI), where he worked
for nearly 24 years. Retired from this post, Newman
is anything but retired from science and works as
a consultant and publishes actively in the area of
discovery and development of drugs sourced from
natural products.
A renowned expert in microbial and marine chemistry,
Newman is a natural products chemist who played a
key role in developing the NCI’s prolific collection of
extracted natural products specimens that includes
many plants and was established in the effort to
discover new anticancer drugs.
“I was extremely surprised and honored as my
background is in microbial and marine chemistry, not
plant-based, so as I said to Guido [Pauli], I was very
surprised and honored by that request,” Newman says of
his invitation to the college.
“What we hope people take away from the Farnsworth
Lecture,” says Pauli, “is that pharmacognosy is really
at the heart of drug research and the source of a
lot of the medicines that we use to treat people
successfully today.”
“[We want everybody] to know how exciting it is to be a
part of that.”
The 9th annual Farnsworth Lecture can be viewed
online at pharmacognosy.pharmacy.uic.edu/events/2022
-farnsworth-lecture/.
Dr. Norman R. Farnsworth
20 THE PHARMACIST PHARMACY.UIC.EDU