A Yale professor has been awarded a $150,000 grant to study the use of the natural product palau’amine, which was isolated from a marine sponge found in the West Pacific, as a potential chemotherapeutic agent.
Chemistry Professor David Austin said the three-year grant will be used to synthesize palau’amine, which was found off the Palau Islands, and several derivatives, to evaluate the biological effects.
“What attracted us to the molecule was its complexity and the particular combination of functionality,” Austin said. “It has an interesting mix of functional groups that suggests its activity will teach us something new about its role in chemical biology.”
He said the research will enable him to create simpler molecules that have essentially the same function and that could potentially be used as a drug.
“The palau’amine structure is very complicated,” Austin said. “We will have to develop new chemical methods in order to synthesize it, which is vital to the understanding of the molecule’s function.”
Johnson & Johnson approved the grant under its Focused Giving Program, which since 1980 has funded more than $35 million in health care and medical research by academic scientists. Company spokeswoman Susan Greger said the program enables J&J to expand its research capabilities.
“The competitive program opens doors to new scientific developments and promotes mutually beneficial relationships between scientists working for the J&J family of companies and those who carry out their work at universities or research centers,” she said.
