January 13: Dr. Amy Wright - Florida Biotech: HBOI's Role in the New "Life Sciences Cluster"

About the Lecture

The State of Florida has made a significant investment in recruiting organizations and companies conducting Life Science research to the state.  Groups such as Scripps Florida, the Burnham Institute for Medical Research at Lake Nona, the Torrey Pines Institute for Molecular Research, and the Max Planck Institute have all come to Florida to help build this knowledge-based industry.

HBOI's Center for Marine Biomedical and Biotechnology Research has had an on-going program in marine natural products discovery with the focus on finding compounds that may be useful in the treatment of dreaded diseases, such as cancer.  This talk will highlight some of our recent findings and how HBOI is working with other members of the Florida Life Science Cluster.

About the Speaker

For the past 27 years, Dr. Wright has conducted research in the field of natural products chemistry.  Currently she is the Director of the Center for Marine Biomedical and Biotechnology Research at HBOI/FAU.  She has over sixty-five publications in the field of marine natural products and is an inventor on twenty-seven US patents (three additional are pending).  Dr. Wright was FAU's Researcher of the Year at Full Professor Level for 2008-2009.

Current research focuses on the discovery of novel marine derived compounds which may have utility in the treatment of cancer and infectious disease; defining the mechanism of action of marine natural products with cytotoxic properties; and development of new assays which target cancer specific processes.

Dr. Wright is also involved in a number of collaborative projects seeking to discover novel therapeutics for the treatment of inflammation, malaria, Alzheimer's disease, heart disease, metabolic disease, and diabetes .

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