Professor Marcel Jaspars | People | The University of Aberdeen

Professor Marcel Jaspars

FRSE, FRSC, CChem, BA Hons (Cantab), PhD (Dublin), ScD (Cantab)

Chair in Chemistry

About

Email Address: m.jaspars@abdn.ac.uk
Telephone Number: +44 (0)1224 272895
Office Address: Meston Building Room G21
School/Department: School of Natural and Computing Sciences

ORCiD

Pure

Google Scholar

Biography

Previous Positions

Head of the Department of Chemistry, University of Aberdeen 2016-2019
Scientific Project Leader of the EU FP7 Project ‘PharmaSea’ (€ 9.5 M, 24 partners from 14 countries) 2012-2017
Visiting Professor for Senior International Scientists of the Chinese Academy of Sciences 2012-2013
Visiting Professor (20%) at the University of Tromsø, Norway to provide advice for their £14 M marine biodiscovery programme. 2007-2017
Sabbatical at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, 2004
Professor of Organic Chemistry, University of Aberdeen, 2003-
Senior Lecturer in Organic Chemistry, University of Aberdeen, 2000-2003
Lecturer in Organic Chemistry, University of Aberdeen, 1995-2000
Post-Doc, Crews Lab, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1993-1995
Post-Doc, Burgess Lab, Texas A & M University, 1992-1993

Qualifications

BA Hons (Cantab) Natural Sciences (Chemistry)
1987 - University of Cambridge
PhD Organic Chemistry
1992 - Trinity College, Dublin
Electrophilic Catalysis of the Sakurai Reaction
ScD (Cantab) Organic Chemistry
2018 - University of Cambridge
Investigating the Chemical Structures, Bioactivity and Biosynthesis of Marine and Desert Natural Products

External Memberships

On the Scientific Advisory Board of the Center for Microbial Secondary Metabolites, Danish Technical University, Copenhagen, Denmark 2018-

Management board of NPRONET, a BBSRC network in industrial biotechnology and biosciences. 2014-2018

Governing board member of Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre, Strathclyde 2014-2016

Policy Work:

Contributing author to “Science in Small Island Developing States: Capacity Challenges and Options relating to Marine Genetic Resources of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction”

Co-author of Blue Paper on the Ocean Genome for the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy 2020

Co-author of study for the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity on Digital Sequence Information on Genetic Resources: Concept, Scope and Current Use. CBD/DSI/AHTEG/2020/1/3 2020

Special advisor on Marine Genetic Resources to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature at the United Nations process on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction. Member of the Member of the IUCN World Council on Protected Areas 2019-

Co-lead of the Deep Sea Genetic Resources Working Group of the Deep Ocean Stewardship Initiative. 2018-

Member of Royal Society working group writing a policy briefing for the Government Office of Science entitled “Future Ocean Resources: Metal-Rich Minerals and Genetics” Released July 2017.

Chair of advisory panel of policy and legal experts (Part of the PharmaSea EU FP7 consortium lead by Marcel Jaspars 2012-17) bringing together policymakers (United Nations, European Commission) with NGOs (International Union for the Conservation of Nature, Convention on Biodiversity Secretariat, International Seabed Authority) with international marine biotechnology companies and academic and legal/policy experts to shape the policy debate on intellectual property derived from marine genetic resources in areas beyond national jurisdiction (United Nations process on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction). Contributions recorded on our BBNJ Page and our Song of the Ocean page

UK member of the Marine Biotechnology working group of the European Science Foundation’s Marine Board Marine Biotechnology Working Group to assist in the revision of the White Paper “Marine Biotechnology – A European Strategy” 2009-2010

Prizes and Awards

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council Research Development Fellow, 2006-2009

American Society of Pharmacognosy Matt Suffness Award for young investigators, 2003

Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, Chartered Chemist

Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh

Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Research

Research Overview

Marine Biodiscovery Centre

Tour the lab and find out what we do

Introduction:

My research involves the discovery of new compounds with potential pharmaceutical use from marine and desert environments, their structure determination and biosynthesis. Translation of bioactive natural compounds into preclinical evaluation is exemplified by with sponge derived compounds/analogues that have activity in animal models for Alzheimer’s disease or epilepsy or are able to deliver proteins into animal brains to generate a model of Alzheimer’s disease.

Natural Product Structure Determination:
Structural work involves the use of complementary NMR and theoretical methods to solve the relative stereochemistry of complex natural products, particularly the use of NOE data to constrain conformational searches and the comparison of predicted and experimental CD spectra. A combination of analytical and spectroscopic methods was used to define a metal complex present in the extract of a seasquirt, giving insight into its ecological role.

Together with Leo Gross at IBM Research, I started original work on organic structure determination using a combination of spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM). First we showed how Ångstrom-resolution AFM images may be used to solve the structure of a simple planar molecule and how this process might be generalised. Subsequently we applied the combined methods to an unknown molecule with a NMR silent region (no H atoms). In a book chapter, we propose the developments needed so that AFM may become invaluable in the rapid structure determination of complex organic molecules in the future.

Biosynthesis:
The isolation and structural characterisation of modified cyclic peptides of marine origin was driven by an interest in their chemical structure in solution and their interaction with metal ions. A major problem with these bioactive cyclic compounds was a sustainable supply. In 2004, I worked together with Dr Paul Long at the London School of Pharmacy and scientists from the Australian Institute of Marine Science to effect the first shotgun cloning of the patellamide biosynthetic pathway resulting in low level production of these compounds.

Subsequent collaboration with Professor Jim Naismith at St Andrews succeeded in overexpressing and structurally characterising the main enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of the patellamides and related cyanobactins. Working together, we defined the main proteases involved including the macrocyclase that circularises a linear peptide without inclusion of a signal sequence, thus making it a very exciting prospect for biotechnological application. We have defined a unique enzyme that forms the heterocycles – the first crystal structure of this type of enzyme. Engineering of this enzyme allowed short synthetic peptide sequences to be processed to form heterocycles in the chain. These enzymes are extremely permissive, and natural and non-natural substrates can be processed using them resulting in the formation milligram quantities of complex, modified cyclic peptides. The starting sequences may include non-natural amino acids and even non-amino acid segments such as fatty acids, aromatics and sugars, with a minimum of three residues required for this to work.

Research Areas

Chemistry

View Research Area

Research Specialisms

Marine Chemistry
Medicinal Chemistry
Organic Chemistry
Analytical Chemistry
Applied Chemistry

Our research specialisms are based on the Higher Education Classification of Subjects (HECoS) which is HESA open data, published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.

MARBLES EU Project

Harnessing marine microbes for drug discovery and sustainable production of fish and crops

Knowledge Exchange

Policy Work:

Protecting the Oceans Using Chemistry

Professor Marcel Jaspars has been advising the UN to develop a new law to protect marine biodiversity. The UN is working to conserve and sustainably use marine biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction – about 60% of the oceans and 40% of the entire planet. The Song of the Oceans brings together science, the arts and humanities to publicise the urgent need to conserve the oceans.

Policy Input

Marcel provided scientific leadership for a large EU FP7 consortium ‘PharmaSea’, running from 2012-2017 with the contribution of 24 partners from 14 countries. Part of this project was to engage with stakeholders, NGOs and policy makers to provide sound scientific advice on major issues affecting the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity. His major role was to translate scientific information and provide options on this topic to senior policy makers at the EU and UN, making visits to Brussels and New York to present information in a digestible format and answer questions, paying particular attention to the legal and policy requirements.

Marcel has been active at national and international levels to develop the science, its applications/industrial uptake and associated policy involved in marine biodiscovery and biotechnology. Since 2014 Marcel has been involved in the BBNJ process, providing scientific input and co-authoring the Mare Geneticum proposal which provides building blocks based on good scientific practice towards a solution for the MGR aspects of the BBNJ process. Also see our work to bring this to a wider audience with our 'Song of the Oceans'.

At EU level he was involved in coordinating the authoring the health section of a European Science Foundation position paper on the Future of Marine Biotechnology informing the blue growth agenda of the European Commission through a number of concrete and measurable recommendations. In 2017 he was a member of the UK Marine Foresight Committee’s Royal Society Working group that wrote a report entitled ‘Future Ocean Resources: Metal-Rich Minerals and Genetics’ on the UN BBNJ issue and he has since provided advice on this topic to the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office. More recently he was a co-author on a report on the Ocean Genome for the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy and a lead author on a study for the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity on Digital Sequence Information on Genetic Resources: Scope, Concept and Current Use.

Marcel Jaspars speaking at UN HQ in New York as advisor to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature at the Second Intergovernmental Conference on the UN process on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Biodiversity in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction

Funding and Grants

Grants in the last 5 years

05/2021	EU Horizon 2020	£561 K	MARBLES Project
08/2021	IBIOIC BBSRC DTP	£102 K	Downstream processing and structure confirmation of chemoenzymatically produced macrocycles
10/2021	EASTBio BBSRC DTP	£97 K	The role of sponge competition in cold-water coral reefs – ROV video analyses and secondary metabolite profiling in the search for compounds of medical and ecological relevance
10/2021	Commonwealth Scholarship Commission	£107 K	PhD scholarship
08/2022	DEFRA	£217 K	DEEPEND project
11/2022	EU Horizon Europe	£553 K	BlueRemediomics Project
01/2023	EU Horizon Europe	£265 K	HOTBIO Doctoral Training Network
04/2023	DEFRA	£166 K	DEEPEND 2 Project

Teaching

Courses

Non-course Teaching Responsibilities

Professor Jaspars is:

Year 3 Coordinator

Erasmus Officer for Chemistry

Coordinator for SX3002 'Science and Society'

Publications

Update

Biography

Qualifications

External Memberships

Prizes and Awards

Research Overview

Research Areas

Chemistry

Research Specialisms

MARBLES EU Project

Knowledge Exchange

Funding and Grants

Courses

Non-course Teaching Responsibilities

Biosynthesis of Neocarazostatin A Reveals the Sequential Carbazole Prenylation and Hydroxylation in the Tailoring Steps

Commiphora gileadensis sap extract induces cell cycle-dependent death in immortalized keratinocytes and human dermoid carcinoma

Polymeric alkylpyridinium salts permit intracellular delivery of human Tau in rat hippocampal neurons: requirement of Tau phosphorylation for functional deficits

The 9th European Conference on Marine Natural Products

Discovery of a Single Monooxygenase that Catalyzes Carbamate Formation and Ring Contraction in the Biosynthesis of the Legonmycins

Chaxapeptin, a Lasso Peptide from Extremotolerant Streptomyces leeuwenhoekii Strain C58 from the Hyperarid Atacama Desert

Prospects and Challenges in Molecular Structure Identification by Atomic Force Microscopy

The Streptomyces metabolite anhydroexfoliamycin ameliorates hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease in vitro and in vivo

Spongionella Secondary Metabolites Regulate Store Operated Calcium Entry Modulating Mitochondrial Functioning in SH-SY5Y Neuroblastoma Cells

Structural analysis of leader peptide binding enables leader-free cyanobactin processing

Detection of halogenated tryramine and tyrosine derivatives in extracts of Algoa Bay ascidians

Penicillium chrysogenum, an endophyte from Padina gymnospora, as a source of diketopiperazines, peptides and griseofulvin

Gracilins: Spongionella-derived promising compounds for Alzheimer disease

Draft Genome Sequence of Aneurinibacillus migulanus NCTC 7096

Draft Genome Sequence of Aneurinibacillus migulanus Strain Nagano

Aspiperidine oxide, a piperidine N-oxide from the filamentous fungus Aspergillus indologenus

Bromoalkaloids Protect Primary Cortical Neurons from Induced Oxidative Stress

Scalarane sesterterpenes from the Egyptian Red Sea sponge Phyllospongia lamellose

Diversity of organic structures of marine microbial origin with drug potential

Draft Genome Sequence of Streptomyces sp. Strain CT34, Isolated from a Ghanaian Soil Sample

Legonaridin, a new member of linaridin RiPP from a Ghanaian Streptomyces Isolate

Almiramide D, cytotoxic peptide from the marine cyanobacterium Oscillatoria nigroviridis

An Efficient Method for the In Vitro Production of Azol(in)e-Based Cyclic Peptides

The structural biology of patellamide biosynthesis

The structure of the cyanobactin domain of unknown function from PatG in the patellamide gene cluster

Butrepyrazinone, a New Pyrazinone with an Unusual Methylation Pattern from a Ghanaian Verrucosispora sp. K51G

The origins of cyanobactin chemistry and biology

Citrinadin A derivatives from Penicillium citrinum, an endophyte from the marine red alga Dichotomaria marginata

Decorosides A and B, cytotoxic flavonoid glycosides from the leaves of Rhododendron decorum

Anticancer effects of bioactive berry compounds

Disruption of a methyltransferase gene in actinomycin G gene cluster in Streptomyces iakyrus increases the production of phenazinomycin

Isolation and Synthesis of Pulmonarins A and B, Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitors from the Colonial Ascidian Synoicum pulmonaria

Dermacozines H-J Isolated from a Deep-Sea Strain of Dermacoccus abyssi from Mariana Trench Sediments

Butremycin, the 3-Hydroxyl Derivative of Ikarugamycin and a Protonated Aromatic Tautomer of 5′-Methylthioinosine from a Ghanaian Micromonospora sp. K310

Microbiology: a talented genus

Spongionella secondary metabolites protect mitochondrial function in cortical neurons against oxidative stress

Mitigation of ROS Insults by Streptomyces Secondary Metabolites in Primary Cortical Neurons

Access to and use of marine genetic resources: understanding the legal framework

Mining the Marine World for Food Ingredients

The Cyanobactin Heterocyclase Enzyme: A Processive Adenylase That Operates with a Defined Order of Reaction

Nivetetracyclates A and B: Novel Compounds Isolated from Streptomyces niveus

Induction of diverse secondary metabolites in Aspergillus fumigatus by microbial co-culture

Tianchimycins A-B, 16-membered macrolides from the rare actinomycete Saccharothrix xinjiangensis

Identification and characterization of the actinomycin G gene cluster in Streptomyces iakyrus

Structure of PatF from Prochloron didemni

The fish pathogen Yersinia ruckeri produces holomycin and uses an RNA methyltransferase for self-resistance

An enzymatic route to selenazolines

Ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptide natural products: Overview and recommendations for a universal nomenclature

The discovery of new cyanobactins from Cyanothece PCC 7425 defines a new signature for processing of patellamides

A combined atomic force microscopy and computational approach for the structural elucidation of Breitfussin A and B: highly modified halogenated dipeptides from Thuiaria breitfussi

The mechanism of patellamide macrocyclization revealed by the characterization of the PatG macrocyclase domain

Fluorine speciation analysis using reverse phase liquid chromatography coupled off-line to continuum source molecular absorption spectrometry (CS-MAS): identification and quantification of novel fluorinated organic compounds in environmental and biological samples

Antimicrobial antioxidant daucane sesquiterpenes from Ferula hermonis Boiss

Defence response of Sitka spruce before and after artificial inoculation with Heterobasidion annosum: 1H NMR fingerprinting of bark and sapwood metabolites

Marine metabolites and metal ion chelation

Antifungal and antibacterial activity of 3-alkylpyridinium polymeric analogs of marine toxins

New nodulopeptins from Nodularia spumigena KAC 66

Triterpenoid saponins from Ferula hermonis Boiss

Contemporary strategies in natural products structure elucidation

Isolation of marine natural products

Biomedicinals from the Microbial Metagenomes of Marine Invertebrates

Diverse Metabolic Profiles of a Streptomyces Strain Isolated from a Hyper-arid Environment

Cutting the cost of HP/HT cleanups: Novel high density cleanup package enables brine reclamation and reduces costs

Chaxamycins A-D, Bioactive Ansamycins from a Hyper-arid Desert Streptomyces sp

The antibacterial ent-eusynstyelamide B and eusynstyelamides D, E, and F from the arctic bryozoan tegella cf. spitzbergensis

Synoxazolidinone C; A bicyclic member of the synoxazolidinone family with antibacterial and anticancer activities

Marine natural products targeting phospholipases A2

Defence response of Sitka spruce before and after artificial inoculation with Heterobasidion annosum: ¹H NMR fingerprinting of bark and sapwood metabolites

Marine natural products targeting phospholipases A₂