**About the Editors**

**Muhammad Ilias** (research professor, National Center for Natural Products Research, School of Pharmacy, University of Mississippi) obtained a B. Pharm. (Hons.) and M. Pharm. in 1976 and 1978, respectively, from the Department of Pharmacy, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, and a Ph.D. in phytochemistry in 1985 from the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom. He worked at the Department of Pharmacy, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh as a lecturer and then as an assistant professor from 1979 to 1987. After post-doctoral training (1987–1989) through the Department of Pharmacognosy, School of Pharmacy, University of Mississippi, he worked as a researcher from 1989 to 1998 at the Medicinal, Aromatic and Poisonous Plant Research Center, College of Pharmacy, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Then, in 1998, he joined as a research assistant professor at the National Center for Natural Products Research (NCNPR), School of Pharmacy, University of Mississippi, and currently serves there as a research professor. Dr. Ilias's primary research area is focused on the isolation and structure elucidation of bioactive compounds from plants with a special emphasis on anticancer, anti-infective (i.e., antimicrobial, antimalarial, and antileishmanial), neuroprotective, and psychoactive agents. He has developed various projects and grants in these areas for the last 23 years, funded by the National Institute of Health (NCCIH and NIGMS), Department of Defense, Medicine for Malaria Venture, and Chromodex Inc., where he acted as a PI or a CO-PI, and also served as an investigator of NCNPR's USDA-ARS Center grant for more than 15 years. In the chemistry and bioactivity of anti-infective natural products, he is collaborating with the University of Nairobi, Kenya, and the Muhimbili University Health and Allied Sciences, Der-Es-Salam, Tanzania, exploring traditional plants from East and South East Africa. He is currently involved in a collaborative research project with the AMR Research Group, Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Cancer & Pharmaceutical Sciences, King's College London, to pursue natural product drug discovery for antibiotic-resistant bacteria. He is also pursuing the development of a library for natural by-products for neurodegenerative diseases, notably for Alzheimer's disease. For anticancer drug discovery at the NCNPR, he focuses on screening natural products against a panel of luciferase reporter genes that assess the activity of many cancer-related signaling pathways, which determines potential anticancer lead compounds. He has also collaborated with pediatric brain tumor research at CRUK, the University of Cambridge, on natural product anticancer drug discovery with Professor Richard Gilbertson's group. In addition, Dr. Ilias is also involved in the large-scale isolation of bioactive/marker compounds from plants and developing their validated isolation methodology. He has developed new environmentally friendly chromatographic technology and devices, named "Chromatorotor" (US20140224740A1) and "Spin Chromatography System" (UM # 8390), for the application of centrifugal preparative chromatography using various types of binder-free sorbents, especially reversed-phase (C18) silica gel. He has published his research outcomes extensively in peer-reviewed scientific articles, review papers, and book chapters and currently serves as an editorial board member regarding molecule and phytochemical analysis.

**Dhammika Nanayakkara** (research professor) earned a B.Sc. in chemistry in 1975 and a Ph.D. in natural products chemistry in 1981 from the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka. After post-doctoral training at the Department of Pharmacognosy in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Illinois Chicago, he joined the Department of Pharmacognosy in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Mississippi as a post-doctoral fellow in 1986. He then went on to join the Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (RIPS) at the same university as a research assistant professor. He moved to the National Center for Natural Products Research (NCNPR) after it was established as a part of the RIPS in 1995, where he currently holds a research professor position. At the RIPS and NCNPR, he has been engaged in researching and developing natural-products-based anti-infective drugs and agrochemicals. This involves the isolation and identification of biologically active compounds from natural sources by bioassay-guided fractionation methods, as well as optimization of lead compounds by chemical modifications. His work has resulted in the identification of several new anti-infective compounds from natural sources. He has also been the PI or co-PI in several research projects regarding the development of 8-aminoquinolines, an important class of anti-infective drugs with promising utility in the treatment of malaria, Pneumocystis pneumonia, and leishmaniasis. These projects have been funded by the World Health Organization, the National Institutes of Health, Medicines for Malaria Venture, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Department of Defense. In addition to leading these projects, he also served as the synthetic organic chemist in the selection, design, and synthesis of all the 8-aminoquinoline analogs and labeled compounds required for biological testing, metabolic studies, and analytical work. This work led to the discovery of an 8-aminoquinoline analog, NPC1161B, with potent activity against Pneumocystis pneumonia, leishmaniasis, and all stages of malaria infection. He has also collaborated with scientists in the Natural Products Utilization Research Unit (NPURU) of the USDA-ARS on several projects to develop natural-product-based agrochemicals for pest management. One of these collaborative projects led to the development of a natural-product-based algaecide for controlling noxious bacteria in freshwater aquaculture. He has co-authored more than 125 research papers and two international patents.
