Rate My Professor Rob Capon

Professor Rob Capon is a Professorial Research Fellow and Group Leader in Molecular Biodiscovery at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland. He earned a Bachelor of Science with Advanced Honours and a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Western Australia in 1984. After his PhD, during which he pioneered the study of chemical constituents from Western Australian marine sponges and seaweeds, he held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California. He then established an independent marine natural products research group in the School of Chemistry at the University of Melbourne, rising to the rank of Professor. In 2003, he joined the University of Queensland's Institute for Molecular Bioscience, broadening his focus to include microbial natural products alongside marine sources.

With over 35 years in biodiscovery science, Professor Capon's research centers on natural products chemistry, specializing in the detection, isolation, identification, and evaluation of biologically active small molecules from Australian marine invertebrates, algae, bacteria, and fungi. His multidisciplinary group employs advanced techniques in microbiology, organic chemistry, spectroscopy, and bioassays to characterize thousands of natural products, many rare or new to science. These efforts have yielded preclinical candidates such as wollamides, cyclic peptides active against multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (2014), and biased analgesics targeting the μ-opioid receptor from an Australian fungus (PNAS, 2019). Key publications include 'Extracting value: Mechanistic insights into the formation of natural product artifacts – case studies in marine natural products' (Natural Product Reports, 2020), 'Roseopurpurins: chemical diversity enhanced by convergent biosynthesis and forward and reverse Michael additions' (Organic Letters, 2016), and 'Viridicatumtoxins: Expanding on a Rare Tetracycline Antibiotic Scaffold' (Journal of Organic Chemistry, 2015). His work has attracted over 14,900 citations and supports pharmaceutical and agrochemical development for infectious diseases, cancer, pain, animal health, and crop protection. Professor Capon leads citizen science initiatives including the Cane Toad Challenge, which developed patented pheromonal tadpole trapping technology, and Soils for Science, collecting Queensland soil samples to uncover new antibiotics.