David John Faulkner. 10th June 1942–23rd November 2002
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John was born in Bournemouth, England on June 10th, 1942. He obtained a B.Sc. in chemistry with 1st class honours from Imperial College in London in 1962. His undergraduate thesis research was conducted in collaboration with Sir Jack Baldwin and J. F. Templeton in the laboratory of Sir Derek Barton. The project involved the structure elucidation of a cyclic peroxide that formed upon autooxidation of isobutyrophenone in the presence of potassium tert-butoxide and it produced John's first scientific publication. John obtained his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from Imperial College in 1965, also under Professor Barton's supervision. His Ph.D. research focused on the exploration of a Michael-type cyclization approach to the formation of ring B of tetracycline. After obtaining his Ph.D., John spent two years (1965–1967) as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the laboratory of Professor Robert B. Woodward at Harvard University. During this time, he worked on the total synthesis of vitamin B12. John was at Harvard when Professor Woodward received the 1965 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and one of his prized possessions was an “R. B. Woodward autographed” champagne bottle from the post-announcement laboratory celebration. In 1967, John moved west to Stanford University where he carried out further postdoctoral research (1967–1968) with Professor William S. Johnson. While at Stanford, John worked on various Claisen reaction approaches to the synthesis of terpenoids, including insect juvenile hormone and squalene.
Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) hired John in 1968 as an assistant professor of marine chemistry. As with all success stories, many people have claimed to be responsible for the inspired decision to bring John to SIO. Much of the credit certainly must go to Edward Goldberg, a Professor of marine chemistry at SIO, and Charles Perrin, a Professor of chemistry at UCSD. These two individuals were aware of the exciting research in marine natural products chemistry that was taking place at the time in Paul Scheuer's group at the University of Hawaii and they realized that the resources of SIO would make it an ideal place to carry out similar studies. In a time-honoured SIO tradition, they set out to hire the best natural products chemist available, irrespective of any experience in marine science, with the expectation that immersion in the SIO culture would soon turn this organic chemist into a marine chemist/oceanographer. John, a brilliant student, who had been mentored by three of the leading natural product chemists of the 20th century, was a natural fit for SIO's vision of their position.
The first student to join John's group at SIO was Mike Petersen, a transfer student who sought refuge in the stable confines of John's laboratory to avoid the sea-sickness he experienced on ocean-going expeditions. Mike was a talented synthetic chemist and together he and John extended the olefinic ketal Claisen methodology to the first synthesis of optically active forms of C-18 Cecropia juvenile hormone with defined absolute configurations. John's first marine publication was a natural extension of his continuing interest in insect juvenile hormones. This paper, published in Science in 1973, describes the effect of various synthetic juvenile hormone analogues on the metamorphosis and settling of acorn barnacle larvae and discusses the implications for their possible use as antifouling agents. John's first series of marine natural product isolation and structure elucidation papers, published in 1973 and 1974, describe highly halogenated monoterpenes obtained from the digestive gland of the herbivorous mollusc Aplysia and red algae in its diet, new antibiotics obtained from marine sponges, and some highly brominated pyrroles produced in culture by a bacterium isolated from seawater. These manuscripts previewed his career-long research interests in shell-less molluscs, marine sponges, bacterial/sponge symbiosis, and the biological activities of marine natural products.
John's first review of marine natural products chemistry appeared in 1974 as Chapter 5 in “The Sea, Volume 5: Marine Chemistry” edited by Edward Goldberg. This article, which was a review of all the published research to that date, described less than 200 known marine natural products, revealing just how new the field was at the time. John's second review of the marine natural product literature came in the form of a Tetrahedron Report published in 1977. It opened with the following declaration: “Marine natural products chemistry has experienced an explosive growth during the past five years. Whereas it was possible to present a fairly exhaustive review of the field just two or three years ago, such a task is now impractical.” The explosive growth in marine natural products chemistry in the early seventies was driven by advances in SCUBA diving and NMR spectroscopy. During this time it became practical for natural product chemists to collect their own specimens from near-shore marine habitats using SCUBA. At roughly the same time, the introduction of pulse FT methods, fast computers, high field cryomagnets, and a bit later 2D experiments, revolutionized NMR and made it possible to solve the structures of complex natural products using only spectroscopic techniques.
John embraced both of these advances. He led his group on frequent collecting expeditions, initially along the coast of California near La Jolla and then gradually to more exotic locations such as the Gulf of California, Belize, and Palau. Although a heart condition prevented John from SCUBA diving, he was nevertheless an avid collector who relished going into the field. He was a tireless tidepooler and he enjoyed collecting samples by snorkelling on shallow reefs. One of John's greatest pleasures was elucidating a complex natural product structure by interpreting the bits of information available in spectroscopic data. His ability to deduce structures from NMR and MS data bordered on true genius. He also had what appeared to be a photographic memory for the NMR spectra of all the natural products that had ever been isolated by his group. John loved to write. His manuscripts conveyed the pure logic of his structure elucidations and biological revelations in clear and precise terms. He was a prolific author who published over 300 scientific papers.
John's scientific contributions can be divided into three areas: i) the discovery of potential pharmaceuticals from marine invertebrates, ii) chemical ecology, and iii) the use of marine natural products as biochemical probes. His areas of interest intersected in many instances since biologically active metabolites of the type that might be useful medicinal agents often play an important role in the biology of the producing organism. A theme that runs through all of the studies carried out by John's group was a strong interest in the basic chemistry of the novel compounds that they discovered, whether they were biologically active or not. This interest led to fundamental chemical research of the highest calibre.
In the area of drug discovery, John's work on the anti-inflammatory compounds related to manoalide was particularly noteworthy. It stimulated many drug companies to initiate synthetic programs designed to find useful analogues based on the mechanism of action of manoalide. This work perfectly illustrates how fundamental research in marine natural products chemistry can stimulate new drug development.
John's ecology interests focused on the chemical defenses of shell-less molluscs, the chemical ecology of marine sponges, and chemically induced larval settlement. He published widely on the skin chemistry and chemical defenses of individual species of shell-less molluscs and he also wrote a number of papers synthesizing this work into a suggestion of how chemical defenses may have played a role in the evolutionary loss of the shell by this group. One paper on this topic, published in Marine Ecology Progress Series and co-authored with M. T. Ghiselin, is a classic.
John's group published a large number of excellent papers on the subject of sponge chemistry and ecology. These papers describe a wide range of completely new natural product structural types, many of them possessing medicinally or ecologically relevant biological activities. John's group also provided elegant evidence for the transfer of defensive secondary metabolites from sponges to molluscs as part of molluscan/porifera predator/prey relationships. In recent years, John turned his attention to the important problem of whether or not metabolites isolated from sponge extracts are synthesized by sponge cells or by symbiotic or dietary microorganisms. His group introduced the use of energy-dispersive X-ray microanalysis and cell-type separation by flow cytometry and differential centrifugation to provide the first definitive proof for the localization of metabolites in either sponge or symbiont cells. John's papers on the origin of metabolites from the lithistid sponge Theonella swinhoei set the standard for research on this problem. John was regarded as one of the world's leading authorities on the chemistry and chemical ecology of shell-less molluscs and marine sponges.
In 1984, John published the first of his influential series of Natural Product Reports reviews. These articles, which thereafter appeared on a regular basis, became a major factor in the development of marine natural products chemistry research. They are comprehensive examinations of the field that served to highlight the most important research trends and as a forum to point out mistakes, shortcomings, or inconsistencies in the literature. These reviews also played a pivotal role in acquainting the broader community of organic chemists with the activities of marine natural products chemists. The articles are widely cited and have come to be accepted as a definitive description of an entire field of research.
A number of collaborators and colleagues played important roles in John's career. Bill Fenical came to SIO shortly after John arrived and working together these two superb scientists turned SIO into one of the world's leading centres of marine natural products research and education. John, Bill, and Yuzuru Shimizu from Rhode Island were jointly involved in a highly successful ongoing NIH/NCDDG program with Bristol-Myers Squibb. Some of John's other scientific collaborations involved work with Nick Holland on sponge metabolite localization, with Jon Clardy on the X-ray structures of marine natural products, with Bob Jacobs on anti-inflammatory compounds such as manoalide, with Mary Garson on polyketides from molluscs, with Alison Butler on marine bacterial siderophores, with Vivek Malhotra on Golgi vesiculation, and with Margo Haygood on invertebrate/bacterial symbiosis. One of John's significant scientific associations was with his long-time Research Assistant Mary Kay Harper, who organized the group's field expeditions, managed the group's sample collection, provided expert sponge taxonomy, and performed a myriad of other functions essential for the smooth operation of the Faulkner group.
As a professor at SIO, John's main educational role was training Ph.D. students. John taught independence and scientific rigor to his students. He was a constant source of ideas and support but he challenged students to think for themselves and to be resourceful at solving problems. He also taught by example. John was totally dedicated to conducting rigorous leading-edge natural products research and he expected no less commitment from his students. He was both a mentor and friend to his students and he was always available to offer them his wise counsel even after they left his lab. John also welcomed many Postdoctoral Fellows and visiting scientists into his laboratory. These individuals often came to learn marine natural products chemistry in order to move their own careers in this direction. Many scientists worldwide who are actively engaged in marine natural products research got their start in this field in John's lab.
John was one of the organizers of the International Conference on “Marine Natural Products” that was sponsored by NATO and held in Jersey, Channel Islands, U.K. in October 1976. He was the elected chair of the 1981 Gordon Research Conference on Marine Natural Products Chemistry that was held in Santa Barbara, California. John served as an Associate Editor of Natural Products Letters and was on the Advisory Board of the Journal of Organic Chemistry.
John's research contributions have been recognized by two prestigious awards. He was the recipient of the Paul J. Scheuer Award in Marine Natural Products in 2000 and he was selected as the 2003 recipient of the American Society of Pharmacognosy's Research Achievement Award.
John died Saturday, November 23rd, 2002, at Thornton Hospital in La Jolla, from complications following heart surgery. It is ironic that it was John's physical heart that failed him since his emotional heart was strong. It drove the ambition that made him an outstanding scientist and it gave him the generous spirit that made him a warm and supportive friend to students, PDFs, and colleagues alike. John will be greatly missed by all who knew him. He will be remembered as a scientific pioneer and leader who played a central role in shaping the field of marine natural products chemistry.
John is survived by his wife Meryl.
Raymond Andersen
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