This award is to support a US-Egypt Workshop on Natural Products Chemistry, to be held in Cairo, Egypt, in January 1999. The US organizer is Dr. Philip Le Quesne, Professor of Chemistry at Northeastern University, Boston, MA. The Egyptian organizer is Dr. Nabiel Saleh, President, National Research Center (NRC) in Cairo, Egypt. The objectives of the four-day workshop are: review the state of knowledge of natural products, especially those pertinent to Egypt; exchange information between US and Egyptian scientists to encourage the development of cooperative projects; and identify priority topics for potential joint research proposals. The topics to be discussed include isolation and structure determination of natural products, natural products in medicine and biology, and synthetic chemistry of natural products. The scientists will also visit some of the major academic and industrial research laboratories in Egypt.
Scope: This workshop will bring together US and Egyptian scientists in various areas of natural products research to develop an agenda for joint research. Dr. Le Quesne has had a long experience in field studies and chemical analysis of natural products in several foreign countries. It is expected that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will support the participation of two NIH scientists in the workshop. The Egyptian organizer, Dr. Saleh, is the head of the largest government research laboratory in Egypt, and is a well-respected natural product chemist. The NRC has a strong group in that field with diverse interests and specialties. It is planned to publish a proceedings covering the presentations and the recommended areas for joint US-Egypt research projects. This proposal meets the INT objective of supporting joint workshops that are likely to increase collaboration in areas of mutual interest.
