{"id":3365,"date":"2013-06-13T18:30:27","date_gmt":"2013-06-13T18:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/?p=3365"},"modified":"2013-06-13T18:30:27","modified_gmt":"2013-06-13T18:30:27","slug":"discover-the-healing-power-of-the-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/pharmacy\/2013\/06\/13\/discover-the-healing-power-of-the-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"Discover the Healing Power of the Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Discover the\u00a0Healing Power\u00a0of the Sea<\/h1>\n

 
\nIn science, amazing discoveries can begin in familiar places\u2014in the ocean, in the plants around us, just about anywhere in the natural world. And at URI, that\u2019s exactly where a group of scientists and their students are looking for newer and more effective medicines to treat infection and a variety of human diseases.Pharmacognosy Professor David Rowley<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0<\/a>and his students work with microbes from the ocean as a potential source for new infection-fighting antibiotics. Right now, they\u2019re studying bacteria found in mud sediment from a remote region of the South Pacific. He says preliminary results are promising, with microbes that are \u201cperhaps unlike any others that have been investigated.\u201dProfessor Navindra Seeram<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and his students are focusing on maple syrup, pomegranates, berries, and other medicinal plants for their potential preventive and\/or therapeutic effects against cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer\u2019s disease. \u201cA vast majority of traditional medicines are plant-derived extracts. Our goal is to understand how molecules in nature behave in order to provide new drugs,\u201d says Seeram, who has\u00a0attracted international recognition for his discovery<\/a>\u00a0of 54 beneficial compounds in pure maple syrup\u2014including five previously undiscovered molecules.<\/p>\n

Our work happens right at the interface of chemistry and biology, and our students get a big picture perspective of how science happens.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

We call Professors Rowley and Seeram and their students our\u00a0Natural Products Group<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong>As the premier natural products research group in the Northeast, it has the largest number of pharmacognosy researchers in the area. It is also one of the most interdisciplinary groups.
\n\u201cOur work happens right at the interface of chemistry and biology, and our students get a big picture perspective of how science happens. We find the molecules in nature, and then our biochemistry collaborators help us determine how they work in nature. We answer biological questions with a chemistry approach,\u201d says Professor Rowley. An added plus\u2014students can move between labs within the Natural Products Group, experiencing different areas of pharmacognosy.<\/p>\n

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