Biodiversity and Drug Discovery in the Phillipines

描述（由申请人提供）：菲律宾群岛包含7,107个岛屿，是世界上12个“超级多样性”国家之一，位于三个生物地理带的交界处。在世界上已知的700种珊瑚中，菲律宾有500多种，是地球上珊瑚多样性最丰富的国家，菲律宾的海洋生态系统也被认为是世界上最濒危的。非凡的陆地和海洋生物多样性，以及广泛的濒危环境，使菲律宾成为世界五大优先保护“热点”之一。为了积极保护和开发这一非凡的生物多样性，菲律宾制定了一套先进的环境立法体系，其中第247号行政命令为参与生物勘探的国际组织制定了重要法规。这项规划赠款的目的是促进菲律宾大学和密歇根州立大学之间的新的合作努力，这些合作努力将在菲律宾建立基础设施、技术和培训，重点是药物发现和微生物遗传资源的记录。首先，将根据EO245制定一份广泛适用的知识产权和商业研究协议（CRA），并为菲律宾大学、密歇根州立大学、菲律宾政府和当地土著居民的需求所接受。其次，研究将严格评估和优先考虑临床前数据不完整的有前途的药用植物，例如菲律宾药用植物和草药登记处列出的许多物种，以及由土著群体草药学家确定并由UP教员编目的新物种。第三，工作将组织和实施试点研究，利用基于核糖体RNA的分子方法来评估陆地和海洋微生物群落的复杂性，从三个重要地理地点开始。以联合项目的形式追求这些互补的目标，将利用广泛适用于菲律宾、亚洲和世界其他地区的陆地和海洋生物的技术，解决药物发现和微生物生物多样性的记录问题。

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.