July 12, 2024

Author: Markie Heideman, Content Marketing Manager

Media Contact: Lindsay Groth, Director of Marketing and Communications, [email protected]

 

David Sherman, Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in the College of Pharmacy, has been awarded the Norman R. Farnsworth ASP Research Achievement Award by the American Society of Pharmacognosy. The award is given to a researcher who has made outstanding contributions to research on natural products. 

 

“It’s a huge honor to receive this award,” Sherman remarked. “For me, it’s really a great feeling to be recognized in this way and an honor to be placed in that category with a small group of people who have won this award in the past.”

 

Dr. Sherman will receive this award at the society’s annual meeting in Krakow, Poland on July 14 where he will present some of his major projects from his decades-long career. Those projects include his work to:

 

  • Develop more efficient ways to produce macrolide antibiotics to manage and treat drug-resistant bacterial infections
  • Use complex molecules produced by fungi to develop anti-parasitic medications for improved animal health 
  • Develop natural product analogs as a potential cure for HIV
 
Sherman has been interested in pharmacognosy, the use of natural products to produce medicine, since his undergraduate research at the University of California, Santa Cruz under his advisor and mentor Phil Crews, a former recipient of this same award.

 

“It’s very special to think about how I got into this work in the first place, and get to follow in his footsteps,” Sherman said. 

 

He also credits former U-M College of Pharmacy Dean Ara Paul, who also focused his research on pharmacognosy, for encouragement and support. 

 

Sherman has traveled all over the world collecting natural compound materials from the ocean and other unique habitats to investigate them for medicinal properties in the Natural Products Discovery Core. 

 

Congratulations to Dr. Sherman on this prestigious award. You can read more about this research here.