Pilot Research Project Two

Anticancer Activity of Native Plants of the Southwest

Co-Principal Investigators:
Mary O’Connell, Ph.D. – NMSU
Julian Simon, Ph.D. – FHCRC

Secondary metabolites obtained from plants are as a rich source of compounds with anticancer activity. Notable examples include taxol from the Pacific yew (Taxus brevifolia, Taxaceae), vinblastine (Vinca Rosea, Apocynaceae) and camptothecin from (Camptotheca acuminata, Nyssaceae). We will join the expertise of Mary O'Connell's group at NMSU in isolation and characterization of native plants from the Southwest with the anticancer screening expertise of Julian Simon's group at FHCRC to create a multidisciplinary anticancer drug discovery program.

The rationale for this collaboration is based on the need to identify new sources of anticancer agents and to re-examine sources that were tested in cytotoxicity-based assays using assays for specific anticancer activities. Thus, the goal of the collaboration is to isolate metabolites from plants found in the Southwest and to test them in cell-based assays for specific anticancer activity. Students at NMSU will carry out the isolation, while testing for anticancer activity will be carried out at FHCRC.

The primary aims of the pilot project are to:

• Continue to collect and characterize extracts from native Southwestern plants.
  
  
• Screen plant extracts in yeast-based anticancer agent assays.
  
  
• Screen plant extracts in mammalian cell-based anticancer assays.
  
  
• Determine organ specificity, genetic or environmental variability for accumulation of anticancer agents.

For More Information:

Learn about the work of Dr. O'Connell's group, “Medicinal Plants of the Southwest Project” at http://medplant.nmsu.edu/.

Information about Dr. Simon's research can be found at http://www.fhcrc.org/labs/simon/ and http://dtp.nci.nih.gov/yacds/exp_design.html

Interested NMSU faculty and students may contact Dr. Mary O’Connell at moconnel@nmsu.edu or Dr. Julian Simon at jsimon@fhcrc.org to learn more about this pilot research project.