Natural products as drugs and leads to drugs: The historical perspective / David J. Newman and Gordon M. Cragg -- Chemical space and the difference between natural products and synthetics / Sheo B. Singh and J. Chris Culberson -- Mechanism of action studies / James J. La Clair -- The convention on biological diversity and its impact on natural product research / Geoffrey A. Cordell -- Plants: Revamping the oldest source of medicines with modern science / Giovanni Appendino and Federica Pollastro -- Macromarines: A selective account of the potential of marine sponges, molluscs, soft corals and tunicates as a source of therapeutically important molecular structures / Jennifer Carroll and Phillip Crews -- Microorganisms: Their role in the discovery and development of medicines / Cedric Pearce, Peter Eckard, Iris Gruen-Wollny and Friedrich G. Hansske -- Advances in biological screening for lead discovery / Christian N. Parker, Johannes Ottl, Daniela Gabriel and Ji-Hu Zhang -- Advances in instrumentation, automation, dereplication and prefractionation / Tim S. Bugni, Mary Kay Harper, Malcolm W.B. McCulloch and Emily L. Whitson -- Natural product combinatorial biosynthesis: Promises and realities / Daniel W. Udwary -- A snapshot of natural product-derived compounds in late stage clinical development at the end of 2008 / Mark S. Butler -- From natural product to clinical trials: NPI-0052 (Salinosporamide A), a marine actinomycete-derived -- anticancer agent / Kin S. Lam, G. Kenneth Lloyd, Saskia T. C. Neuteboom, Michael A. Palladino, Kobi M. Sethna, Matthew A. Spear and Barbara C. Potts -- From natural product to clinical trials: Bevirimat, a plant-derived anti-AIDS drug / Keduo Qian, Theodore J. Nitz, Donglei Yu, Graham P. Allaway, Susan L. Morris-Natschke and Kuo-Hsiung Lee -- Daptomycin / Richard H. Baltz -- Micafungin / Akihiko Fujie, Shuichi Tawara and Seiji Hashimoto