NIH Grant Goes to USC Pharmacy School
Photo/Lee Salem Photography Inc.
That tough work takes an army to accomplish it, according to Clay C.C. Wang, assistant professor at the USC School of Pharmacy.
Wang contends that one must construct a synergistic approach to efficiently mine the world, using cutting-edge tools of genomics, molecular genetics and natural products chemistry.
Wang and his colleagues have found support for their approach at the National Institutes of Health, having been awarded a three-site, program project grant “to mine the Aspergillus nidulans secondary metabolome” in search of promising new therapeutics. Wang’s collaborators are the overall project investigator Berl Oakley of Ohio State University and Nancy Keller of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“The Aspergillus nidulans sounds like a different language,” Wang said. “Actually most people know about Aspergillus fungi – the aspergillus terreus gave us lovastatin, the cholesterol medication commonly marketed as Mevacor.
“Our project will look at a different Aspergillus species, the secondary metabolite pathways of A. nidulans.”
The project hypothesizes that the next frontier of natural product discovery is not unknown to us but instead is undiscovered in the genomes of organisms that have been looked at in laboratories for decades.
Looking at other pathways, or secondary pathways, of these organisms requires a collaborative approach using the latest molecular genetic tools, increased understanding of the regulation of these secondary metabolites and analytical tools designed to identify these new pathways. These skills are not to be found under one roof.
“Together, we’ll be able to elucidate the products of these pathways, building on each other’s work,” Wang said. “We expect the project to generate a substantial number of new natural products for development as therapeutics.”
The researchers see potential for these new compounds as chemotherapy and antimicrobial agents. In addition, the tools and methods developed in this program project can be translated to other fungal genomes as they become known.
Wang’s part of the project utilizes his expertise in natural product chemistry to analyze Aspergillus strains that will be provided by his collaborators. Wang will purify and elucidate the structure by sequencing the genome and hopefully identify the various new compounds.
The five-year grant of $4,910,613 will be divided among the three institutions. According to Wang, “This collaborative approach realizes the best of three disciplines and takes us closer to finding the next best compound.”
Wang’s research is supported by another NIH grant, an American Cancer Society award and a grant from the State of California.
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USC in the News
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The Chronicle of Higher Education mentioned USC’s $6 billion fundraising campaign. The story noted that USC had already raised $1 billion in a “quiet phase,” including the $200 million naming gift from USC Trustee and alumnus David Dornsife and wife Dana Dornsife to the USC Dornsife College.
The Guardian (U.K.) highlighted two major gifts to USC in a list of the 10 biggest philanthropic benefactors in America. The list included the $200 million naming gift from USC Trustee and alumnus David Dornsife and wife Dana Dornsife to the USC Dornsife College, and the $110 million gift from USC Trustee and USC Viterbi School alumnus John Mork and wife Julie to create the USC Mork Family Scholars Program.
The New York Times featured the USC U.S.-China Institute documentary “Assignment: China — The Week that Changed the World.” The documentary, part of a series, examines media coverage of the 1972 Nixon trip that reshaped U.S.-China relations after a quarter century of isolation and hostility. “People look back now and take it for granted that the outcome was preordained,” said the institute’s Mike Chinoy, who produced the documentary. Voice of America also featured the story.
Los Angeles Times featured the Oscar Senti-meter, a tool developed by the USC Annenberg School, Los Angeles Times and IBM that analyzes thousands of tweets about the Academy Awards nominees. The story noted that Mexican actor Demian Bechir received an enormous boost on Twitter the day of the nominations, with a total of 6,893 tweets mentioning him, a 47-fold increase from the day before. The story noted the tool uses language-recognition technology developed in collaboration with USC Viterbi School’s Signal Analysis and Interpretation Lab.
The Times of India (India) featured a three-day medical emergency training workshop organized in association with USC. At the workshop, held at GCS Medical College in India, 50 doctors and more than 100 paramedics learned how to improve emergency support systems. William Mallon of the Keck School of USC said that discussion topics included the use of portable ultrasonic devices to scan patients. “The ultrasound applications help physicians make accurate and timely decisions,” he noted. Daily News & Analysis (India) also featured the workshop.
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