I graduated in chemistry at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) in 1987. During my undergraduate studies I did research during two years as undergraduate investigator with a FAPESP scholarship (1985 and 1986). My undergraduate research project aimed at the synthesis of 8.O.4′ sulfurated, oxygenated and nitrogenated neolignan analogues for testing in schistosomiasis, malaria and leishmania parasites, as well as against pathogenic bacteria and fungi. Results of my undergraduate research were presented at the Annual Meetings of the Brazilian Society for the Advancement of Science (1985, 1986 and 1987) and in the French-Brazilian Symposium on the Chemistry and Pharmacology of Natural Products in Inflammation, Allergy and Thrombosis (Rio de Janeiro, RJ, 1986). My research was developed under the supervision of Professor Lauro E. S. Barata and together with Dr. Pedro H. Ferri and Lourival S. Santos. This research has been published in the journal Phytochemistry, but my inclusion as author was inadvertently ommited.

During the last year of my undergraduate studies I moved to the Companhia of Desenvolvimento Tecnológico (CODETEC) as a junior researcher. During a period of six months I developed projects in organic synthesis under the supervision of Dr. Durval Marcos Vieira.

In the same year I was hired as researcher at the Centro Pluridisciplinar de Pesquisas Químicas, Biológicas e Agrícolas at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas. During one year (1987-1988) I was involved in technology-transfer projects for phytotherapy companies.

In October 1988 I started a PhD at the Faculté des Sciences, Université Libre de Bruxelles, under the supervision of Professor Jean-Claude Braekman and co-supervised by Professor Désiré Daloze. My PhD project was focused on the discovery of bioactive natural products from marine sponges. Results obtained from the isolation of guanidine alkaloids from the Mediterranean sponge Crambe crambe led to publications in Tetrahedron Letters, Journal of Natural Products (two articles), one book chapter and one review in the series Fortschritte der Chemie organischer Naturstoffe (Progress in the Chemistry of Organic Natural Products). My PhD was presented in 1992.

(Picture of the orange sponge Crambe crambe – by Eduardo Hajdu)

Back to the Centro Pluridisciplinar de Pesquisas Químicas, Biológicas e Agrícolas at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas, during 1992 and 1993 I was involved in a project towards the optimization of artemisinin production by Artemisia annua.

In 1993 I was hired by the Universidade de São Paulo, at the Instituto de Química de São Carlos, first as a collaborator professor (1993-1995), then as Assistant Professor (1995-2000), Associate Professor (2000-2010) and as Full Professor since 2010.

Between 1997 and 1998 I was a visiting professor at the University of British Columbia in the group of Professor Raymond J. Andersen. During a six months sabbatical I was involved in a project towards the discovery of new G2 cell cycle checkpoint inhibitors, in collaboration with Professor Michel Roberge. This project resulted in the discovery of granulatimide and isogranulatimide as inhibitors of the G2 cell cycle chekpoint, results which have been patented and subsequently published in The Journal of Organic Chemistry and in Cancer Research. Professor Raymond J. Andersen and I have collaborated in several projects over 20 years.

Among the projects developed together with Professor Raymond Andersen, it was an honor to participate in the Natural Cooperative Natural Products Drug Discovery Program funded by the USA National Cancer Institute and the National Institutes of Health. The team was coordinated by Professor Chris M. Ireland and included the participation of Professor Jon Clardy‘s group and the company Wyeth-Ayerst. An overall report has been published in the journal Pharmaceutical Biology. During that period I visited the College of Pharmacy at the University of Utah.

Between 2014 and 2015 I was a visiting professor at the Life Sciences Institute of the University of Michigan. During this period I did work in the group of Professor David H. Sherman, investigating the biosynthesis of alkaloids produced by two fungal strains, Penicillium oxalicum F30 and Penicillium citrinum F53. Projects were developed together with Dr. Stelamar Romminger and Dr. Sean Newmister, and resulted in publications in the Journal of the American Chemical Society and in Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry.

Since 2009 I am participating in the steering committee of the BIOTA-FAPESP program, and since 2010 the managing committee of the CNPq SISBIOTA-Brasil Program.