The 8th "Forum on frontiers of pharmaceutical sciences", commissioned by the State Key Laboratory of New Drug Research, was held at Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences in the afternoon of December 28, 2012. Deputy Director of the Chinese National Compound Library, Professor Jianmin Yue delivered a comprehensive lecture entitled "Thoughts and case studies on the development of natural product chemistry - discovery and applications of natural compounds with novel structures" which was well applauded by the audience.