Bioassay and Ecology Directed Drug Discovery in Panama

描述（由申请人提供）：这是一份续期申请，以继续我们在巴拿马的ICBG工作，将从自然资源中发现药物的目标与东道国的基础设施发展、培训、经济增长、生物多样性清单和保护相结合。在过去的四年半里，所有这些领域都取得了丰硕成果，其中大部分努力是在东道国和东道国机构进行的。巴拿马独特地位于北美洲和南美洲之间以及加勒比海和太平洋之间，因此拥有非凡的植物和藻类生物多样性。因此，巴拿马是一个“生物多样性热点”，也是这些主要地理特征之间的生物走廊，从而为具有高影响力的区域和国际保护战略提供了独特的机会。我们从巴拿马和美国的学术机构以及制药和农化行业的领导者中组建了一个杰出的团队。我们建议团队努力探索多种陆生植物、海洋藻类和蓝藻的天然产物中对几种热带病（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加工策略，产生比预期更高的活性提取物率。我们的保护工作涉及史密森尼热带研究所、保护国际组织和伍兹霍尔海洋研究所等主要机构。我们的项目与东道国机构进行了非常积极的互动，并得到了东道国机构的支持，通过我们的外联努力，我们继续提高巴拿马人对生物多样性的认知价值。两家合作公司（诺华和陶氏农业科学），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、财政和培训资源，以及开发有前景的材料的机制。所有收集和生物测定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的良好访问。一套完善的法律文件确保了与巴拿马的知识产权和利益分享非常有益的计划。

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.