CHEMICAL PROSPECTING IN A COSTA RICAN CONSERVATION AREA

本申请描述了一个国际生物多样性合作组织 （ICBG）致力于基于获得的天然产物的药物发现 通过国家生物多样性研究所（INBio）从瓜纳卡斯特 哥斯达黎加的自然保护区。一个具体的目标是引进热带 昆虫和相关节肢动物进入药物搜索过程， 发展虽然众所周知昆虫利用各种各样的 次级代谢物作为防御剂，毒液和信息素，它们 比植物、微生物或海洋生物受到的关注要少得多 生物体作为有用的药剂的潜在来源。关于INBio 助理计划将协调收集生物材料， 将建立一个由国内科学家和准专业人员组成的小组， 进行收集（以及追求生态和系统 研究），将从生物材料中制备提取物，并将携带 开展抗疟疾筛查项目。INBio的活动还将 促进国家生物多样性清单，并建立一个系统， 生物多样性信息管理与传播。康奈尔 助理计划将协调ICBG的活动。它还将 追求的化学特性和合成选定的天然 在生态的基础上出现特别有趣的产品 领导，并将培训哥斯达黎加研究人员在化学 特性鉴定，生物测定开发，基础领域和实验室 与“化学勘探”有关的学科。第三个伙伴 计划，由药物研究和开发部执行 司百时美施贵宝，将收到大部分的提取物 在INBio准备，并将进行广泛的筛选， 生物活性，包括抗癌，抗感染， 心血管、CNS和皮肤病学活动。Bristol-Myers Squibb 具有悠久的药物开发历史，并具有彻底的现代化体系 屏幕和预测模型。

This application describes an International Cooperative Biodiversity Group (ICBG) directed toward drug discovery based on natural products obtained via the Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio) from the Guanacaste Conservation Area in Costa Rica. One specific aim is to introduce tropical insects and related arthropods into the process of drug search and development. While insects are well known to utilize a wide variety of secondary metabolites as defensive agents, venoms, and pheromones, they have received much less attention than plants, microbes, or marine organisms as potential sources of useful pharmaceutical agents. The INBio Associate Program will coordinate the collection of biological materials, will create a group of in-country scientists and paraprofessionals to conduct the collecting (as well as to pursue ecological and systematic studies), will prepare extracts from biological materials, and will carry out an anti-malarial screening program. INBio's activities will also contribute to the national biodiversity inventory, and establish a system of biodiversity information management and distribution. The Cornell Associate Program will coordinate the ICBG's activities. It will also pursue the chemical characterization and synthesis of selected natural products which appear especially interesting on the basis of ecological leads, and will train Costa Rican researchers in chemical characterization, bioassay development, and basic field and laboratory disciplines related to "chemical prospecting". The third Associate Program, to be carried out by the Pharmaceutical Research and Development Division of Bristol-Myers Squibb, will receive the bulk of the extracts prepared at INBio, and will carry out screening over a broad range of biological activities, including a search for anticancer, anti-infective, cardiovascular, CNS, and dermatological activities. Bristol-Myers Squibb has a long history of drug developing, and has a thoroughly modern system of screens and predictive models.