"My father can look at a spot in the ocean and see so much more than others see." So says Jonathan Scheuer of his father, University of Hawaii professor Paul Josef Scheuer, Ph.D., the pioneer chemist credited with helping develop and bring to the forefront the science of marine natural products. Today, thanks largely to Scheuer's research during the past 50 years, many leading scientists believe the oceans may produce the next wave of treatments for a variety of incurable diseases.
Scheuer will be honored during the International Chemical Congress of Pacific Basin Societies (Pacifichem 2000) meeting in Honolulu, December 14-19. A special recognition program will be held at 5:30 p.m., Sunday, December 17 at the Sheraton Waikiki. It will be followed by the two-day Scheuer symposium December 18-19 at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, Tapa Conference Center, Honolulu. The symposium will feature the latest research on marine natural products.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of Scheuer's academic career at the University of Hawaii as well as the start of human clinical trials in Europe of Kahalalide F (KF), a potential cancer treatment Scheuer discovered in a Hawaiian marine mollusk. The compound, now produced by the Spanish biotechnology company PharmaMar, enters clinical trials for prostate cancer at the end of the year. KF may also be beneficial in treating lung and colon cancers.
Scheuer coined the term "marine natural products" to describe the study of chemical compounds produced by marine organisms. Seventy percent of the earth's surface is water, and the oceans contain millions of organisms with natural chemicals that may prove beneficial in treating human diseases. Much of Scheuer's work relates to drug discovery and finding novel chemicals in marine organisms that can help people in some way.
Scheuer is the author of 13 books on the subject and has received National Science Foundation grants annually for the last 49 years. The scientific community recognizes him as the father of marine natural products.
Scheuer was one of a handful of scientists focusing on MNP back in the 1950s. Today, 200-300 scientists around the world work in the field.
"He really pushed the frontiers of marine natural products in the early years of the field," says Bill J. Baker, a professor at Florida Institute of Technology, who did his doctoral studies under Scheuer. "He popularized the field."
Scheuer was first exposed to chemistry in the late 1930s while working in a tannery in Simontornya, Hungary. His interest in natural products started at Harvard University while he took a course called "The Chemistry of Natural Products." When he arrived at the University of Hawaii in 1950, the school was just developing a chemistry department, and Scheuer discovered that Hawaii is the ideal location for research in MNP because of its untapped natural resources of rich endemic flora and its biological diversity, which no chemist had ever studied.
"Paul Scheuer started working on marine organisms in the Unites States when no one else was," says John Cardellina, Ph.D., president of the American Society of Pharmacognosy, who will present Scheuer with an honorary membership in the society during the symposium.
Joyce Tsunoda, Ph.D., vice president of the University of Hawaii and chancellor of the state's community college system, will be among those paying tribute to Scheuer during his symposium. She credits Scheuer with encouraging her to pursue her doctorate in biochemistry and an academic career when it was not popular for women to do so. "Dr. Tsunoda's story is just one example of how Dr. Scheuer's impact has reached far beyond his lab in Hawaii," says Roy K. Okuda a professor at San Jose State University, who did his doctoral studies under Scheuer and who organized the Scheuer Symposium for Pacifichem 2000.
"[Scheuer] deserves much more recognition than he has received," says Stanford scientist Carl Djerassi, creator of the birth control pill. He refers to Scheuer as the "father of American natural products chemistry" in the book Candid Science: Conversations with Famous Chemists by Istvan Hargittai.
Scheuer was born in Heilbronn, Germany in 1915. He graduated first in his high school class in 1934. Because he was Jewish, Scheuer was denied admission to universities due to racial restrictions set by the Nazi party. He spent several years working in leather tanneries in Germany, Hungary, Yugoslavia and England, and immigrated to the United States in 1938. He received his bachelor's degree from Northeastern University and his doctorate in chemistry from Harvard University. At Harvard, he studied with Robert Burns Woodward, who later received the Nobel Prize in chemistry.
Scheuer has been married to Alice Dash, a Radcliffe graduate, for 50 years. They have four children: Elizabeth, Deborah, David and Jonathan.
For more information on the Paul J. Scheuer Symposium and Pacifichem 2000, visit http://www.acs.org/meetings/pacific2000.
Additional Sources
Roy Okuda, Ph.D., San José State University, 408-924-2525
Jonathan Scheuer, Honolulu, Hi, 808-988-2052
John Cardellina, Ph.D., president, American Society of Pharmacognosy, 202-872-1488
Bill Baker, Ph.D., Florida Institute of Technology, 321-674-7376