Background

Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) at UC San Diego is one of the oldest, largest, and most important centers for global science research and education in the world. With the oceans covering 70 percent of the earth's surface, it is no surprise that approximately two-thirds of the world's animal phyla are found in marine environments and many are exclusively marine. SIO scientists were among the first to explore the natural product chemistry of marine organisms and this research helped to develop the field of marine natural products chemistry and the realization that the oceans harbor myriad new organic molecules with utility for the development of pharmaceuticals and other products. This research led to the discovery of hundreds of new compositions of matter for new products—some of which are already well progressed into commercial development. Two compounds are now entering phase II clinical trials. One of these, Salinosporamide A, is a potent proteasome inhibitor. The second compound, which is derived from the fungal metabolite halimide, acts as a vascular disrupting agent.

Technology Description

SIO scientists have developed effective methods to cultivate unique marine microorganisms, which are a rich source of bioactive secondary metabolites. Using state of the art methods in microbiology and natural products chemistry, cultures are isolated for use in discovery of new compounds. Pure compounds as well as extract and fraction libraries are stored in a 96-well plate format and are readily available for testing at standardized concentrations.

Applications

The discovery of compounds is limited only by the assays employed; pure compounds, extracts, and fraction libraries can be tested in whole cell and in vitro bioassays. Validated targets include:

• Cancer
  
• Malaria
  
• Infectious disease 

In addition, active materials can be provided in large-scale for bioassay-guided fractionation.

Advantages

Natural products include unique structural features that cannot be readily reproduced in the laboratory. These structures are the results of millions of years of evolution and are exquisitely designed to interact with biological targets. This diversity is realized in the context of:

• Cultured microorganisms—A renewal resource (bacteria, fungi, and algae) that is amenable to modern fermentation technologies for mass production.
  
• Libraries—Rapid screening in diverse assays.
  
• Utility—Pharmaceuticals (therapeutic, diagnostics), veterinary medicine, agriculture (natural pesticides, fungicides, and algaecides).
  
• Development—SIO inventors follow collection of samples with the full spectrum of early development from screening and preliminary characterization to structural elucidations and synthesis.
  

It is anticipated that naturally evolved compositions may yield NCE's that are significantly differentiated from those developed by limited iteration of pre-defined platforms.

State Of Development

Patents issued and pending (see specific cases for details).

Related Materials

Additional research information is available through the following.

• Fenical W, Jensen PR, Palladino MA, Lam KS, Lloyd GK, Potts BC. 2009. Discovery and Development of the Anticancer Agent Salinosporamide A (NPI-0052). Bioorg. Med. Chem. 17:2175-2180.
• http://scrippsnews.ucsd.edu/Releases/?releaseID=719
• http://pharmacy.ucsd.edu/faculty/gerwickbio.shtml
• http://fenical.ucsd.edu/Fenical%20Home.htm
• http://www.marinebiotech.org/gerwick.html

Other Related Cases

Tangible research materials also available.

Other Information

Contact

University of California, San Diego Technology Transfer Office / invent@ucsd.edu / tel: View Phone Number. Please reference Tech ID #20990.

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