主讲人简介：

英国约翰英纳斯中心研究组长，东安格利亚大学教授，英国皇家学会院士（Fellow，FRS），欧洲分子生物学组织成员（Fellow，EMBO），美国科学促进会会士（Fellow，AAAS）。曾任《The Plant Cell》期刊主编，欧洲植物科学组织（EPSO）副主席，现任《Plant Physiology》期刊副主编，《Current Opinion in Plant Biology》、《Trends in Plant Sciences》等多个学术刊物编委。

长期从事植物代谢的分子生物学研究，关注饮食与人类健康的关系，致力于通过植物代谢工程及生物强化，提升植物性膳食来源的营养价值，以应对全球范围内慢性疾病不断加剧的挑战。关注植物天然产物的合成与调控，特别是中国药用植物中用于治疗或辅助治疗癌症的代谢产物。在国内外学术刊物发表研究论文300余篇，参与撰写学术专著40余部，并获得多项专利。

获得营养学兰克奖（Rank Prize for Nutrition），多酚研究成就奖（Groupe Polyphenols Prize），英国生物技术与生物科学研究委员会最具潜力创新者奖（BBSRC Most Promising Innovator）。2014年，因对植物生物技术的贡献被授予大英帝国勋章（MBE）。

报告摘要：

Plant natural products may occupy parts of the chemical space largely unexplored by screening of available pharmaceutical libraries while at the same time adhering to ‘drug-likeness’ descriptors. While there remains interest in developing small molecule drugs for cancer, exploring large numbers and diverse types of druglike compounds is a challenge. However, new chemical leads can be identified from traditional medicines, where long-standing ethnobotanical usage supports more detailed investigation. Scutellaria barbata D. Don is a key medicinal plant species in the Lamiaceae (the mint family) and the aerial parts have been used traditionally for treating cancer in many Asian countries, where it is known as Ban Zhi Lian (半枝莲). Scutebarbatine A is the major diterpenoid, produced in specialized large, peltate trichomes on leaves of S. barbata. It induces dose-dependent apoptosis, specifically in cancer cells. Comparison between the cytotoxicity of methanolic extracts of S. barbata leaves and decoctions (Ban Zhi Lian) prepared traditionally, showed substantially different chemical compositions and differential induction of apoptosis. Analyses suggest polyvalency between the constituents in both extracts, and ways to produce enhanced chemopreventive preparations for the treatment of cancer.