Marine biotechnology company, Aquapharm Biodiscovery, announced recently it has signed a research agreement with Albany Molecular Research to identify novel drug-like compounds and scaffolds with anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory activity from Aquapharm’s marine natural products library.
On signing of the agreement, Aquapharm CEO Simon Best said: “We are confident that this collaboration will exploit the novelty, diversity and drug-like characteristics of the compounds which we know from pilot studies are abundantly produced by marine microorganisms.” AMRI vice president, discovery research and development, Bruce Sargent, Ph.D, commented: “We have a wealth of experience accumulated from developing and mining our own extensive terrestrial natural product library, and we are pleased to apply this experience to Aquapharm’s marine derived library. It’s a new and exciting opportunity.” Initial results from this research agreement are expected during 2011. AMRI has broad screening capabilities and moreover particular expertise in seeking antibacterial natural products, having successfully completed its own internal screen of its collections yielding multiple lead compounds effective against MRSA and E. coli organisms.
