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

描述（由申请人提供）：本次更新国际生物多样性合作组织（ICBG）申请旨在从斐济和所罗门群岛采集的培养海洋微生物和多种珊瑚礁生物中发现和开发小分子药物先导物。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：包括结核病和耐药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;以及神经变性和中枢神经系统疾病。这些治疗领域的筛选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，以促进药物发现和开发。为此获取原始材料 该计划将与生物调查联系起来，通过生态调查了解生物相互作用的化学调解，并使用旨在最大限度地提高次级代谢产物生产和检测的生态学策略来丰富。该计划大量投资于微生物基因组学，化学生态学，创新培养方法和生物测定，基于序列的方法学以及现代分子和分析工具的应用，以提高发现新天然产物的效率。所有新化合物的结构都将使用现代分析化学技术来解决，并生产足够数量的临床前评估。四个合作项目（AP 1 -4）的研究活动具有高度的协同作用，并强调培训和向东道国的技术转让。该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协调，并由南太平洋药物发现和保护中心提供便利。CDDC将与海洋生态学家合作，制定更有效的珊瑚礁保护战略，并扩大当地管理的海洋区域（LMMA）计划，该计划已被证明是一种非常有效的方法，可以使村庄一级认识到保护和维护健康珊瑚礁的重要性。

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.