Professor Marcel Jaspars

Professor Marcel Jaspars
Professor Marcel Jaspars
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

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

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.

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 at the UN

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

Non-course Teaching Responsibilities

Professor Jaspars is:

Year 3 Coordinator

Erasmus Officer for Chemistry

Coordinator for SX3002 'Science and Society'

Publications

Page 11 of 11 Results 251 to 266 of 266

  • Wainunuamide, a histidine-containing proline-rich cyclic heptapeptide isolated from the Fijian marine sponge Stylotella aurantium

    Tabudravu, J. N., Morris, L. A., Kettenes-van den Bosch, J. J., Jaspars, M.
    Tetrahedron Letters, vol. 42, pp. 9273-9276
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
  • Analysis of the structure and electrophysiological actions of halitoxins: 1,3 alkyl-pyridinium salts from Callyspongia ridleyi

    Scott, R. H., Whyment, A. D., Foster, A., Gordon, K. H., Milne, B. F., Jaspars, M.
    Journal of Membrane Biology, vol. 176, pp. 119-131
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
  • Glutathione-dependent conversion of N-ethylmaleimide to the maleamic acid by Escherichia coli: an intracellular detoxification process

    McLaggan, D., Rufino, H., Jaspars, M., Booth, I. R.
    Applied and Environmental Microbiology, vol. 66, pp. 1393-1399
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
  • H-Bond Mediated Folding of Natural & Model Patellamides - Modified Cyclic Octapeptides from Lissoclinum Patella

    Milne, B., Morris, L., Jaspars, M.
    Gordon Research Conference on Marine Natural Products
    Contributions to Conferences: Posters
  • Redox Properties of the Patellamides: Dicopper Complexing Modified Cyclic Octapeptides Isolated from the Seasquirt Lissoclinum patella

    Morris, L., Milne, B., Jaspars, M.
    International Conference on Coordination Chemistry
    Contributions to Conferences: Posters
  • Structure determination and MSn analysis of two new lissoclinamides isolated from the Indo-Pacific ascidian Lissoclinum patella: NOE restrained molecular dynamics confirms the absolute stereochemistry derived by degradative methods

    Morris, L. A., van den Bosch, J. J. K., Versluis, K., Thompson, G. S., Jaspars, M.
    Tetrahedron, vol. 56, no. 42, pp. 8345-8353
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
  • A bioactive modified peptide, aeruginosamide, isolated from the cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa

    Lawton, L. A., Morris, L. A., Jaspars, M.
    Journal of Organic Chemistry, vol. 64, pp. 5329-5332
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
  • Computer assisted structure elucidation of natural products using two-dimensional NMR spectroscopy

    Jaspars, M.
    Natural Product Reports, vol. 16, pp. 241-247
    Contributions to Journals: Literature Reviews
  • Conformational Studies on Free and Cu(II) Bound Patellamide C

    Morris, L., Milne, B., Jaspars, M.
    2nd Euroconference on Marine Natural Products
    Contributions to Conferences: Posters
  • Conformational Studies on Free and Cu(II) Bound Patellamide C

    Morris, L., Milne, B., Jaspars, M.
    Biodiversity: A Source of New Leads for the Pharmaceutical and Agrochemical Industries
    Contributions to Conferences: Posters
  • Detoxification of microcystins (cyanobacterial hepatotoxins) using TiO2 photocatalytic oxidation

    Lawton, L. A., Robertson, P. K. J., Cornish, B. J. P. A., Jaspars, M.
    Environmental Science & Technology, vol. 33, pp. 771-775
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
  • Testing the water

    Jaspars, M.
    Structural Chemistry, pp. 51-55
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
  • Cyanobacteria - A novel source of pharmaceuticals

    Jaspars, M., Lawton, L. A.
    Current Opinion in Drug Discovery and Development, vol. 1, no. 1, pp. 77-84
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
  • Processes influencing the destruction of microcystin-LR by TiO2 photocatalysis

    Robertson, P. K., Lawton, L. A., Cornish, B. J., Jaspars, M.
    Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology A: Chemistry, vol. 116, no. 3, pp. 215-219
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
  • A bioactive secosterol with an unusual A- and B-ring oxygenation pattern isolated from an Indonesian soft coral Lobophytum sp.

    Morris, L. A., Christie, E. M., Jaspars, M., Van Ofwegen, L. P.
    Journal of Natural Products, vol. 61, no. 4, pp. 538-541
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
  • Syntheses and structures of 3-stannylcholest-5-ene species

    Buchanan, H. J., Cox, P. J., Doidge-Harrison, S. M., Howie, R. A., Jaspars, M., Wardell, J. L.
    Journal of the Chemical Society - Perkin Transactions 1, no. 24, pp. 3657-3664
    Contributions to Journals: Articles
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