Lacey, WA − Unigen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a leading natural products R&D company and proprietary rights supplier, and the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI), have announced a partnership, which is the first step in an exciting process of collecting marine organisms from the Atlantic Ocean, with an eye to screening the samples for creating therapeutic and commercial products.
Unigen has been collecting plants and other organisms since 1997. Their research and discovery includes extensive work at both the human cell and gene level. Unigen focuses on identifying and studying the unique ingredients of medicinal botanicals and then developing proprietary raw materials for use in cosmeceutical, nutraceutical, functional food and pharmaceutical products. However, the current project will be the first time the company has developed a marine collection.
Researchers anticipate collecting a diverse range of marine organisms – invertebrates such as sponges, corals (non-reef builders), tunicates, and echinoderms, as well as algae, all of which will provide a wealth of information that will lead to discoveries of new chemical entities and novel natural, therapeutic commercial products.
Leading the collection process is Dr. Russell Kerr, Canada Research Chair in Marine Natural Products at UPEI. Dr. Kerr has been collecting and studying specimens in the Florida Keys and the Bahamas for over 20 years.
Dr Qi, Jia, Chief Scientific Officer of Unigen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Dr. Kerr met in the spring of 2007, resulting in the partnership between the company and UPEI. “Dr. Kerr’s reputation and lab are very highly respected in the marine natural product research community,” said Dr. Jia. “Unigen is very excited to see this project move ahead so quickly, and very proud to be involved with Dr. Kerr and the University of Prince Edward Island.”
“Unigen has great expertise with the development of natural products from plants and I’m very optimistic that this marine-based collaboration will lead to many exciting discoveries,” said Dr. Kerr. “I’m delighted to have the opportunity to work closely with Unigen.”
After collection, Unigen will apply natural-product chemistry to extract the collected marine organisms, and fractionate the extracts using a high-throughput purification system. The obtained marine extracts and fractions will be tested internally and externally on appropriate biological, biochemical, genomic, proteomic, in vitro, in vivo and ex vivo models. The active components will be separated and identified as leads for development of pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, cosmeceutical and functional food products.
Unigen will work closely with Dr. Kerr and UPEI to further expand this collaborative research in marine natural products in coming years.