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Last Updated: September 12, 2008

COLLABORATION RESOURCES

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Affiliation
Expertise/interests
Potential role in project
Contact information

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  • Postings from individuals and groups interested in collaborating on an ICBG application

Name: Lisa A. Price, ND
Affiliation: Bastyr University
Expertise/interests:  Complementary and alternative medicine and therapeutics, and its effect on the immune system. We are interested in the use of natural products, particularly traditionally used medicinal mushrooms and botanicals, with potential anti cancer and anti inflammatory effects. Furthermore, we are interested in identifying active constituents as a way to standardize and assess quality of commercially produced phytopharmaceuticals.
Potential role in project: We have the capability to perform various immunological assays assessing NK cell activity, phagocytosis, cytokine stimulation, and T helper cell population dynamics, as well as bioassay guided fractionation. In addition, we have the capability to run relatively small scale clinical trials on appropriate natural products, and have a future potential to run larger clinical trials (>100) at our clinical facility in the future.
Contact information:
e-mail:Lprice@bastyr.edu


Name: Beatrice Njeri Irungu
Affiliation: Centre for traditional medicine & drug Research, Kenya Medical Research Institute
Expertise/interests:  I am a chemist interested in documentation and biochemical investigation of medicinal plants. My interest is in malaria and recently I have developed an interest on cancer. For the last five years I have been investigating safety and efficacy of medicinal plants traditionally used in management of malaria though in vivo (Plasmodiun berghei ANKA) and in vitro (Plasmodium falciparum) bioassays. I have recently developed a proposal on cancer where by I would wish to screen extracts for their in vitro antiproliferative activities and therefore looking for collaboration in this area.
Potential role in project: providing extracts and screening them for in vitro antiproliferative properties.
Contact information:
Beatrice Njeri Irungu
Centre for Traditional Medicine & Drug Research
Kenya Medical Research Institute
P.O Box 54840-00200
Nairobi
Kenya
e-mail:BIrungu@kemri.org
Tel: +254-722-360265


Name: Manah Dindi
Affiliation: Chemistry Strand, University of Papua New Guinea
Expertise/interests: Interest in documentation, isolation and identification of traditional medicinal plants.
Potential role in project: I have been sponsored by ICBG-PNG from 2004-2006 to work on my masters project.I was also trained in the US for 5 months under the same programme on prefractionation of plant extract,isolation and identification on bioactive compounds. I want to colloborate as an individual in the project.
Contact information:
Manah Dindi
Chemistry Strand
School of Natural & Physical Sciences
PO BOX 320 University of Papua New Guinea
Waigani Campus
Papua New Guinea
e-mail: mdindi@upng.ac.pg
Ph:(675) 3267 230 or (675) 678 2949(mobile)
fax: (675) 326 0369


Name: Salma N. Talhouk
Affiliation: Initiative for Biodiversity Studies in Arid Regions (IBSAR): An Interfaculty Center of the American University of Beirut, Lebanon
Expertise/interests: The Center has four areas of interest:
• Traditional Knowledge and Biotechnology. Based on Arab ancestral knowledge in medicine and the use of biotechnology and clinical research, the Center focuses on characterizing, verifying, and validating the beneficial effects of plants and other natural resources, while exploring their safe use and marketability. This program seeks to develop products attractive to biotechnology industries.
• Identification, Characterization, and Monitoring of Biodiversity. Biodiversity in the Mediterranean and arid lands of the Middle East is intertwined with local culture and livelihoods. The Center conducts its scientific activities in a context where, at present, both nature and people are marginalized, and it seeks to re-position them as central to a sustainable future. The Center adopts trans-disciplinary approaches to identify and promote local conservation measures in parallel with scientific assessments of species and habitats.
• Landscape Approach to Biodiversity Conservation. Landscape research at the Center aims to develop efficient spatial planning of project sites to ensure the preservation of local landscape character and sustainable use of land resources. The group integrates cultural heritage by focusing on rural practices, and applying a holistic approach that ensures responsiveness to the natural, semi-natural, rural, and urban context.
• Sustainable Use of Biodiversity. Through research, studying market needs, and modernizing production and cultivation techniques of plants native to the region, researchers have partnered with the private sector to generate ideas leading to the introduction of new products and the creation of new industries.
• Knowledge Sharing. The Center seeks to increase awareness of the value of biodiversity and interest in nature conservation. Through projects and partnerships with NGOs, the Center expands interest in biodiversity beyond conservationists and nature lovers to include private businesses, the arts community, and environmental NGOs to extend their capabilities and impacts.
Potential role in project: The multidisciplinary team at IBSAR has expertise in identifying plants and molecules that possess bioactive properties. Many of the plants have a well established role in traditional Arab medicine and culinary practices. Plants from the region are collected and cultivated, extracted, and tested for their potential effects on major diseases such as cancer, inflammation, microbial infections, and to determine where they might have preventative healthcare uses. In the past few years, taxonomic identification and biological screening of water and methanolic extracts of plants against several normal and tumor cell lines led to the selection of several plants possessing potent bio-activites. Bio-guided fractionation procedures of plant extracts against a panel of inflammation, colon, skin, and lymphoma cancer cells led to the isolation and the identification of anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer compounds. IBSAR recognizes the tight coupling of chronic inflammatory diseases and cancer and this lends itself towards bio-prospection for both preventive and therapeutic cancer treatments. ibsar ongoing research aims at utilizing well-established molecular, cellular and animal models and markers of cancer and inflammation to explore the potential of Lebanese endemic plants in prevention and treatment. Skin, colon, and blood cancers cell culture models are used and those are coupled to in vivo models. In addition, In vitro cell models, a rodent mammary and intestinal cell models, and an in vivo rodent model of chronic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are also used to test for anti-inflammatory effects.
Contact information:
Dr. Salma N. Talhouk, PhD
Director IBSAR (Initiative for Biodiversity Studies in Arid Regions)
American University of Beirut
P.O.Box 11-0236
Riad El-Solh 1107 2020
Beirut, Lebanon
Phone + 961 1 350000 ext 4508
Fax 961 1 374374 ext 4505
Email: ntsalma@aub.edu.lb
Website: www.ibsar.org


Name: Nuno Filipe Ribeiro Pinto de Oliveira Azevedo
Affiliation: IBB—Institute for Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Centre for Biological Engineering, Universidade do Minho, Protugal
Expertise/interests: Our research interests range from the environmental ecology of the microbial pathogen Helicobacter pylori to the development of molecular ecology tools, particularly fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and PCR, for the rapid detection and physiological assessment of microorganisms in different types of samples, with a special focus on water. On these two technologies, we have been mostly involved in developing peptide nucleic acid (PNA) FISH and ethidium monoazide bromide (EMA)-PCR
Potential role in project: With our extensive knowledge on molecular biology techniques and our geographic location, that allows easy access to several sampling sites in the Atlantic Ocean (including the Azores and Madeira islands), we would be of particular interest for any project with the goal of exploring the biodiversity of microbial populations in the ocean
Contact information:
Nuno Filipe Azevedo
Centro de Engenharia Biológica
Universidade do Minho
Campus de Gualtar
4700-057 Braga
Portugal
e-mail: nunoazevedo@deb.uminho.pt
Tel: +351 253604400
Fax: +351 253678986


Name: Mary Voytek
Affiliation: USGS Water Resources Discipline
Expertise/interests: Environmental Microbiology, biogeochemistry, bioremediation, biogenic methane and biofuels.
Potential role in project: Assessment of microbial potenital for bioremediation or biofuel generation
Contact information:
Mary Voytek
12201 Sunrise Valley Drive
Reston, VA 20192
(703) 648-6894
(703) 648-5484 FAX
Project Colleagues: William Ore, organic geochemist Edward Landa, soil scientist, metals and radionuclide chemist


Name: Ahmed A. Hussein
Affiliation: Chemistry of Medicinal Plants, National Research Center, Egypt.
Expertise/interests:  Our research interests concentrated on the isolation and identification of bioactive compounds from natural sources (marine and terrestrial), the scope of the activity could be: cytotoxicity against human cancer cell lines, blocking of sugar absorption sites by natural compounds and it's contribution to the human health. Also we are interesting in the application of triterpenoides and coumarins in the field of treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, e.g. Alzehiemer.
Potential role in project: We have strong and deep knowledge in chemistry of natural products, also we can read easily the Arabic traditional medicine and conclude in which field can be used. We have also expertise in the collection and identification of marine organisms and related bacteria from Red Sea.
Contact information:
Ahmed A. Hussein
Chemistry of Medicinal Plants
National Research Center, El Behouth St.
P.O.Box 12311
Dokki, Cairo
Egypt
e-mail:hussss4@yahoo.com
Tel: +002012-768-1494