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Academic
exchange and collaboration to identify
plant derived extracts that possess
bioactive properties and have promising
market potentials - UNDP Drylands
Development Center has provided seed
funding to initiate a partnership
between the Drug Discovery Technology
Center (DDTC) of the University of
Helsinki in Finland and IBSAR. IBSAR
faculty held their third meeting in
March with delegates from the University
of Helsinki represented by Professor
Arto Urtti, director of DDTC, and Dr.
Heikki Vuorela director of the Division
of Pharmaceutical Biology at the
University of Helsinki.
The meeting
took place at AUB and the aim was to
draft a multinational proposal, with the
main goal to chemically modify specific
plant products and generate computer
models that would lead to an increased
therapeutic potential of the products
under investigation. At a later stage,
the proposal will include testing the
effects of the plant products on human
cells. The complementarity between
partners entails IBSAR’s expertise in
the screening and identifying of natural
therapeutics specifically in the field
of cancer and inflammation and DDTC in
drug development. The partners’
objective is to attract further
collaboration with other scientists in
Europe and the US, and solicit EU
funding that will lead to the
advancement of naturally derived
therapeutics. |
