Invited Speaker

Mixing Ecology and Drug Discovery: An Innovative New Model
Chris Edward Stout
USA

This presentation will focus on an innovative approach to drug discovery and development within a context of environmental concerns. The project to be discussed is unique in that it cross-cuts various issues: illness, sustainability, poverty, traditional healing, and medical sciences. We are working with partners in Benin who have concerns that with the advancements of urbanization of ancient villages developing into cities, there is a concomitant risk of losing medicinal plants of traditional healers as an unintended result. Many of these plants hold promise as basic compounds for further refinement and potential for drug development and manufacture. This presentation will cover the conservation approach taken to identifying, cataloging, and literally "saving" these promising plants from extinction as a result of development. Additionally, discussion as to the scientific and economic mechanism used to further develop medicines for not only local but global benefit will be provided. The ability to license the resultant intellectual property will act to further aid in the economic sustainability and self-sufficiency of this research and development processes. Often developing countries are not prioritized venues for large pharmaceutical companies; our project offers an elegant solution that can generalize and scale as a global model for others to mimic.