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Natural Products and Cancer Biology Program
The overall objective of the Natural Products and Cancer Biology Program is to foster collaborative research leading to the discovery and development of new drugs for the treatment of cancer. The Program emphasizes the systematic evaluation of the unique biota of the Indo-Pacific region as a source of molecular diversity, and combines chemistry and biology components in a manner that bridges the gaps between traditional academic disciplines to enhance collaborative interactions.
The specific goals of the Natural Products and Cancer Biology Program are:
- To discover and characterize new chemotherapeutic agents, emphasizing natural products.
- To investigate drug mechanisms at the biochemical, molecular and genetic levels.
- To develop innovative new molecular targets and assays for small molecules, taking advantage of recent advances in cancer biology.
- To discover innovative new techniques that might be used to design and synthesize drugs, including both chemical and biological production.
- To translate the results of basic laboratory research into more effective cancer therapies.
Program description and activities
The Natural Products and Cancer Biology Program, formally organized in 1990, developed as a result of long-standing interactions between investigators who combined their diverse interests in pharmacology, cancer biology, organic chemistry, botany, and microbiology, as well as a strong common interest in cancer therapeutics, to address the pressing need for new cancer drugs having specific effects on tumor cells and no side effects on normal tissues. Currently, the Program includes six full members who have their primary academic appointments in four different units of the University of Hawaii (Department of Chemistry, Department of Botany, CRCH, and the Pacific Biomedical Research Center) and one affiliate member. The Program is a multidisciplinary research/drug discovery group that functions in separate but interrelated and interdependent areas: the acquisition of new, untested source material for screening; the development and implementation of innovative mechanism-based, cancer-relevant bioassays; the isolation and identification of active compounds; and, for those pure compounds active in vitro, both detailed pharmacological investigation and definitive in vivo evaluation. Translation of these research results into clinical trials is accomplished through partnerships with private industry.