Biodiversity and Drug Discovery in the Phillipines

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The Philippine Island archipelago contains 7,107 islands and is one of the world's 12 "mega diversity" countries at the junction of three bio-geographic zones. The Philippines contains more than 500 of the world's 700 known coral species - the richest diversity of coral on the planet, and the Philippines' marine ecosystems are also considered the most endangered in the world. The combination of extraordinary terrestrial and marine biodiversity and widespread endangering conditions, places the Philippines in the world's top five high priority conservation "hotspots." To aggressively protect and explore this extraordinary biodiversity, the Philippines developed an advanced system of environmental legislation, in which Executive Order 247 defines critical regulations for international groups involved in bioprospecting. The objective of this planning grant is to facilitate new collaborative efforts between the University of the Philippines and Michigan State University that will build infrastructure, technology and training in the Philippines focused on drug discovery and documentation of microbial genetic resources. First, a broadly applicable intellectual property and commercial research agreement (CRA) will be forged in accordance with EO245, acceptable to the University of the Philippines (UP), Michigan State University, the government of the Philippines, and the needs of local indigenous populations. Secondly, research will critically evaluate and prioritize promising medicinal plants with incomplete pre-clinical data, such as many species listed in the Philippines Registry of Medicinal Plants and Herbs as well as new species identified by indigenous group herbalists and catalogued by UP faculty. Thirdly, work will organize and implement pilot studies using ribosomal RNA based molecular methods to assess the complexity of terrestrial and marine microbial communities beginning in three sentinal geographic sites. Pursuit of these complementary aims in the form of associate programs will address drug discovery and documentation of microbial biodiversity using techniques that are broadly applicable to both terrestrial and marine organisms in the Philippines, Asia and throughout the rest of the world.