Bioassay and Ecology Directed Drug Discovery in Panama

描述(由申请人提供)：这是一份续展申请，旨在继续我们在巴拿马的ICBG努力，将从自然来源发现药物的目标与东道国基础设施发展、培训、经济增长、生物多样性清单和保护相结合。过去4.5年在所有这些领域都取得了很高的成效，大部分努力都发生在东道国和东道国机构。巴拿马拥有非凡的植物和藻类生物多样性，因为它在北美和南美洲以及加勒比海和太平洋之间有着独特的并列关系。因此，巴拿马是“生物多样性热点”，也是这些主要地理特征之间的生物走廊，因此为制定具有重大影响的区域和国际保护战略提供了独特的机会。我们组建了一支出色的团队，他们来自巴拿马和美国的学术机构，以及制药和农化行业的领导者。我们建议一个团队努力探索各种陆地植物、海藻和蓝藻的天然产物，以寻找对几种热带疾病(利什曼病、恰加斯病和疟疾)、癌症(基于细胞和机制)和农业害虫具有活性的化合物。我们选择收集植物的生态方法，以及保存生物活性物质的处理策略，产生比预期更高的活性提取物比率。我们的保护工作涉及主要机构，如史密森热带研究所、保护国际和伍兹霍尔海洋研究所。我们的项目与东道国机构有非常积极的互动和支持，通过我们的外展努力，我们继续提高巴拿马人对生物多样性的感知价值。这两家合作公司(诺华和陶氏农业科学公司)，一家专注于制药，另一家专注于农用化学品，提供额外的生物测试、财务和培训资源，以及开发有前景的材料的机制。所有收集和生物检测信息都保存在网络数据库中，这确保了所有团队成员以及东道国和美国政府合作伙伴都能很好地访问。一套完善的法律文件确保了与巴拿马在知识产权和利益分享方面的高度有益的计划。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This is a renewal application to continue our ICBG efforts in Panama which combine the goals of drug discovery from natural sources with host country infrastructure development, training, economic growth, biodiversity inventories, and conservation. The past 4.5 years have been highly productive in all of these areas, with the majority of effort occurring in the host country and at host country institutions. Panama possesses an extraordinary biodiversity of plants and algae owing to its unique juxtaposition between North and South America and between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean. As such, Panama is a "biodiversity hotspot" as well as a biological corridor between these major geographical features, thus providing unique opportunities for high impact regional and international conservation strategies. We have assembled a remarkable team from Panamanian and US academic institutions as well as leaders in the pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries. We propose a team effort to explore the natural products of diverse terrestrial plants, marine algae and cyanobacteria for compounds active to several tropical diseases, (leishmaniasis, Chagas' disease, and malaria) cancer (cell- and mechanism-based) and agricultural pests. Our ecological approach to selecting plants for collection, as well as a processing strategy, which preserves biologically active materials, yields a higher rate of active extracts than otherwise expected. Our conservation efforts involve leading institutions such as the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Conservation International, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Our program has very positive interactions with, and support from, host country institutions, and through our outreach efforts we continue to improve the perceived value of biodiversity by Panamanians. The two collaborating companies (Novartis and Dow AgroSciences), one focused on pharmaceuticals and the other on agrochemicals, provide additional biotesting, financial and training resources, as well as a mechanism for the development of promising materials. All collection and bioassay information is maintained on a web database, and this insures excellent access by all team members as well as host country and US government partners. A well-developed set of legal documents assures a highly beneficial plan for intellectual property and benefit sharing with Panama.