Approximately 5000 halogenated natural products are known, the vast majority of which are biosynthesized by marine organisms. New bioactive halogenated marine natural products are regularly isolated and identified when extracts of marine organisms are subjected to mass spectroscopic analysis, simple antimicrobial bioassays, ecologically relevant bioassays, and cancer cell line and isolated protein target screening programmes.

Selected examples of the structurally diverse halogenated bioactive marine natural products, identified from application of these techniques to extracts of marine invertebrates and algae collected off the coasts of South Africa and the central Pacific island nation of Palau, will be highlighted.

Of interest to atmospheric chemists is the contribution of previously unknown sources of mono- and polyhalogenated volatile marine natural products to inter alia tropospheric and stratospheric ozone depletion events. Very little is known about the contribution of volatile halocarbons, emerging from the vast southern oceans, to our understanding of the global atmospheric halide budget.

The preliminary time series data for ca. 30 volatile halocarbons, the first data set of this kind from Africa, acquired from a joint University of Bristol/University of Western Cape volatile marine halocarbon programme based at Cape Point, South Africa, will be presented.

About the Speaker

Professor Mike Davies-Coleman, is a professor of chemistry and Dean of Natural Sciences at the University of Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa. He is internationally recognized for his over three decades of research into the natural products chemistry of African marine invertebrates and terrestrial plants, which has resulted in over 100 research publications in this and related fields. Professor Davies-Coleman is a Fellow of the South African Chemical Institute and the Royal Society of South Africa and was the recipient of both the Rhodes University Vice Chancellor’s Distinguished Research and Teaching Awards. A former Fulbright Senior Research Fellow at the US National Cancer Institute, Professor Davies-Coleman is currently a Benjamin Meaker Visiting Professor in the School of Chemistry at the University of Bristol exploring, with Professor Dudley Shallcross, the volatile halocarbons in the marine boundary layer at Cape Point, South Africa.

This event is open to University of Bristol staff and students only.

Halogenated marine natural products: from the sea floor and into the atmosphere