Meet the Guest Editor

Gilles Goetz obtained his Masters (Biochemistry 1991) and his PhD degrees (Organic Chemistry 1995) from the University Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg (Fr) working under the supervision of Prof. J-P Lepoittevin studying the molecular processes of Poison Ivy contact dermatitis. He then studied Marine Natural Products as a post-doctoral fellow from 1996 to 1998 at the University of Hawaii (US) working with late Prof. Paul J. Scheuer. From 1998 to 2000 he was research assistant (post-doc) for Prof. Raphaelle Tabacchi at the University of Neuchatel (CH) studying Fungal and Terrestrial Natural Products. From 1996 to 2002 he isolated, purified and determined the structures of numerous biologically active natural products, from marine, terrestrial and fungal sources utilizing MS and advanced NMR techniques. Since 2000 he has been a principal research scientist at Pfizer (legacy Searle-Monsanto, Pharmacia) in St Louis, Missouri. As a member of the analytical chemistry team supporting High Throughput Screening, he contributes to provide bona fide leads to numerous research projects in several therapeutic areas. His research interests include: natural products chemistry; chemical ecology; combinatorial chemistry, computational chemistry; chemo-informatics; advanced mass spectrometric methodology for the analysis of complex organic samples. SELECTED PUBLICATIONS 1. Luesch, H.; Horgen, F.D.; Goetz, G.; Harrigan, G.G. The cyanobacterial origin of potent anticancer agents originally isolated from sea hares and other marine macro organisms. Curr. Med. Chem. 2002, 9, 1241-1253. 2. Kimura, J.; Takada, Y.; Inayoshi, T.; Nakao, Y.; Goetz, G.; Yoshida, W.Y.; Scheuer, P.J. Kulokekahilide-1, a cytotoxic depsipeptide from the cephalaspidean mollusk Philinopsis speciosa. J. Org. Chem. 2002, 67, 1760-1767 3. Goetz, G.H.; Harrigan, G.G.; Likos, J. Ugibohlin: A new dibromo-seco-isophakellin from Axinella carteri. J Nat. Prod. 2001, 64, 1581 -1582 4. Becerro, M.A.; Goetz, G. Paul, V.J.; Scheuer, P.J. Chemical defenses of the mollusk Elysia rufescens and its host alga Bryopsis sp. J. Chem. Ecol. 2001, 27, 2287-2299 5. Goetz, G.; Meschkat, E.; Lepoittevin, J.P. Synthesis of a water soluble analog of 6-methyl-3-n-alkyl catechol labeled with carbon 13: NMR approach to the reactivity of poison ivy/oak sensitizers toward proteins. Bioorg. Chem. Letters, 1999, 9, 1141-1146.