Exploration, conservation, & development of marine biodiversity in Fiji and the S

描述(由申请人提供)：国际合作生物多样性组织(ICBG)的这项续签申请旨在从斐济和所罗门群岛收集的培养海洋微生物和各种珊瑚礁生物中发现和开发小分子药物。药物发现工作将集中在与美国和中低收入国家相关的四个主要疾病领域：包括结核病和抗药性病原体在内的传染病；包括钩虫和蛔虫在内的被忽视的热带疾病；癌症；以及神经退行性和中枢神经系统疾病。这些治疗领域的筛查将与两家主要制药公司、两个备受尊敬的学术团体以及各种测试中心和政府资源合作进行，这些测试中心和政府资源可用于促进药物发现和开发。为此获得原始材料 该计划将与生物调查相联系，从解决生物相互作用的化学中介的生态调查中获得信息，并利用旨在最大限度地提高次生代谢物生产和检测的基于生态的战略加以丰富。该计划在微生物基因组学、化学生态学、创新栽培方法和生物分析方法的应用、基于序列的方法以及现代分子和分析工具等方面投入了大量资金，以提高发现新天然产品的效率。所有新化合物的结构都将使用分析化学的现代技术来解决，并生产足够数量的产品用于临床前评估。四个协理项目(AP1-4)的研究活动具有很强的协同性，强调向东道国进行培训和技术转让。这项研究最大限度地发挥了项目负责人的专业知识，以产生超越传统天然产物药物发现范式的协作和高度跨学科的研究目标。这些活动通过中央业务核心进行协调，并由南太平洋药物发现和养护中心提供便利。CDDC将与海洋生态学家合作，制定更有效的珊瑚礁保护战略，并扩大当地管理海区(LMMA)计划，该计划已被证明是一种非常有效的方法，可以提高村级对保护和维护健康珊瑚礁的重要性的认识。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This renewal International Cooperative Biodiversity Group (ICBG) application aims to discover and develop small molecule drug leads from cultured marine microbes and diverse coral reef organisms collected from Fiji and the Solomon Islands. Drug discovery efforts will focus on four major disease areas of relevance to the United States and low and middle income countries: infectious disease including tuberculosis and drug- resistant pathogens; neglected tropical diseases including hookworms and roundworms; cancer; and neurodegenerative and central nervous system disorders. Screening in these therapeutic areas will be performed in collaboration with two major pharmaceutical companies, two highly respected academic groups, and various testing centers and government resources that are available to facilitate drug discovery and development. The acquisition of source material for this program will be linked to biotic surveys, informed by ecological investigations addressing the chemical mediation of biotic interactions, and enriched using ecology- based strategies designed to maximize secondary metabolite production and detection. The program is heavily invested in microbial genomics, chemical ecology, the application of innovative cultivation methods and bioassays, sequence-based methodologies, and modern molecular and analytical tools as methods to improve the efficiency with which new natural products are discovered. The structures of all new compounds will be solved using modern techniques in analytical chemistry and produced in sufficient quantities for pre-clinical evaluation. The research activities of the four associate programs (AP1-4) are highly synergetic and emphasize training and technology transfer to the host country. The research maximizes the expertise of the program leaders to generate collaborative and highly interdisciplinary research objectives that transcend traditional natural product drug discovery paradigms. These activities are coordinated through the Central Operations Core and facilitated by the South Pacific Center for Drug Discovery and Conservation. The CDDC will work with marine ecologists to develop more effective strategies for reef conservation and to expand the Locally-Managed Marine Area (LMMA) program, which has proven to be a highly effective method to bring village-level awareness to the importance of conservation and the maintenance of healthy coral reefs.