NSF Young Investigator

9358452 Curtis该奖项将重点关注从植物组织培养中扩大化学生产的规模。紫杉醇是植物组织培养物作为生物活性化学物质来源的潜力的例证，紫杉醇是一种抗癌药物，最近被FDA批准用于治疗卵巢癌。紫杉醇是从太平洋紫杉的树皮中分离出来的。这种树的产量相对较低，治疗一个病人需要几棵树。这棵树长得也很慢。在美国，它需要100年才能成熟，而且分布区域非常有限。植物细胞培养可以为生产紫杉醇以及其他植物衍生产品提供一种替代方法，从而提供一种克服自然资源限制的手段。＊＊＊

9358452 Curtis This award will focus on the scale-up of chemical production from plant tissue cultures. The potential of plant tissue cultures as sources of biologically active chemicals is exemplified by taxol, an anti-cancer drug recently approved by the FDA for treatment of ovarian cancer. Taxol is isolated from the bark of the Pacific yew tree. The yields from this tree are relatively low and several trees are required to treat a single patient. The tree is also slow growing, ie., it requires 100 years to mature, and has a very limited area of distribution. Plant cell cultures may provide an alternative for the production of taxol as well as other plant derived products, and thus provide a means of overcoming limitations in natural resources. ***