Kiyotake Suenaga Laboratory, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University: Exploring Starting Points for Drug Discovery through Chemical Research of Natural Products

We conduct research to discover new bioactive substances from natural sources that can serve as lead compounds, which are starting points for drug discovery, or as reagents for life science research. We collect marine cyanobacteria from the subtropical coral reef waters of Okinawa and the Amami region. After extraction with organic solvents, we use bioactivity—for example, toxicity against cancer cells—as a guide to separate the components using chromatography and HPLC, ultimately isolating pure substances. The chemical structures of the isolated bioactive substances are determined through instrumental analysis, such as NMR and mass spectrometry, as well as computational chemistry. Next, we perform a chemical synthesis of the obtained bioactive substances to confirm that their structures and bioactivities are correct. Furthermore, we elucidate their mechanisms of action to understand how they exhibit their bioactivity. We have discovered numerous new bioactive substances to date and aim to make further discoveries in the future.