The Central Asia ICBG program will facilitate the development of the natural product-based pharmaceutical capabilities in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan while encouraging biodiversity conservation and exploration, building research and economic capacity, developing ecologically-sustainable harvesting means and enhancing training and international cooperation. Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan possess diverse and largely unexplored biodiversity spread over a wide range of climatic zones. The program will integrate wide-ranging, state-of-the art, multiple-target screens performed by five separate groups with powerful structural and analytical approaches designed to characterize and develop therapeutic agents produced by plants, fungi and prokaryotes from Central Asia. The program will build upon a well-developed, longstanding cooperation between the scientists in the participating countries and Rutgers University, which is supported by comprehensive legal agreements. Human diseases relevant to this region will be purposely targeted, involvement of the local scientists actively encouraged and the ethnobiological knowledge upheld. Care will be taken to assure equitable benefit sharing and biodiversity treaties compliance. The screens associated with the proposed ICBG program will encompass 10 major therapeutic areas and close to 60 specific disease-related human targets and pathogenic microorganisms. The program will generate 108,000 prokaryotic, 10,260 plant and 6,000 fungal samples for the primary phase of these screens. A comprehensive training and bioinformatics initiative, made possible through major matching funds from Rutgers University and University of Illinois, will strengthen the research and development component of the program and further increase its impact on biodiversity preservation and inventory.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Fogarty International Center (FIC)
Type
Research Project--Cooperative Agreements (U01)
Project #
1U01TW006674-01
Application #
6719914
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-ICP-2 (50))
Program Officer
Katz, Flora N
Project Start
2003-09-26
Project End
2008-04-30
Budget Start
2003-09-26
Budget End
2004-04-30
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
2003
Total Cost
$692,000
Indirect Cost
Name
Rutgers University
Department
Miscellaneous
Type
Schools of Earth Sciences/Natur
DUNS #
001912864
City
New Brunswick
State
NJ
Country
United States
Zip Code
08901
Ilic, Nebojsa M; Dey, Moul; Poulev, Alexander A et al. (2014) Anti-inflammatory activity of grains of paradise (Aframomum melegueta Schum) extract. J Agric Food Chem 62:10452-7
Cheng, Diana M; Kutzler, Louis W; Boler, Dustin D et al. (2013) Continuous infusion of 20-hydroxyecdysone increased mass of triceps brachii in C57BL/6 mice. Phytother Res 27:107-11
Buehrer, Benjamin M; Duffin, David J; Lea-Currie, Y Renee et al. (2012) Tools for the identification of bioactives impacting the metabolic syndrome: screening of a botanical extract library using subcutaneous and visceral human adipose-derived stem cell-based assays. J Nutr Biochem 23:519-25
Esposito, Debora; Komarnytsky, Slavko; Shapses, Sue et al. (2011) Anabolic effect of plant brassinosteroid. FASEB J 25:3708-19
Eisenman, Sasha W; Poulev, Alexander; Struwe, Lena et al. (2011) Qualitative variation of anti-diabetic compounds in different tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus L.) cytotypes. Fitoterapia 82:1062-74
Ilic, Nebojsa; Schmidt, Barbara M; Poulev, Alexander et al. (2010) Toxicological evaluation of grains of paradise (Aframomum melegueta) [Roscoe] K. Schum. J Ethnopharmacol 127:352-6
Gorelick-Feldman, Jonathan; Cohick, Wendie; Raskin, Ilya (2010) Ecdysteroids elicit a rapid Ca2+ flux leading to Akt activation and increased protein synthesis in skeletal muscle cells. Steroids 75:632-7
Ribnicky, David M; Kuhn, Peter; Poulev, Alexander et al. (2009) Improved absorption and bioactivity of active compounds from an anti-diabetic extract of Artemisia dracunculus L. Int J Pharm 370:87-92
Tadych, Mariusz; Chaverri, Priscila; Bergen, Marshall et al. (2009) Moelleriella zhongdongii: stroma development and identification of hirsutella-like and Aschersonia synanamorphs. Mycol Res 113:611-5
Grace, Mary H; Yousef, Gad G; Kurmukov, Anvar G et al. (2009) Phytochemical characterization of an adaptogenic preparation from Rhodiola heterodonta. Nat Prod Commun 4:1053-8

Showing the most recent 10 out of 34 publications