Realizing Nature's Potential: The Once and Future King of Drug Discovery was a two-day event held at the Missouri Botanical Garden in the fall of 2006 in honor of Dr. Gordon Cragg. Dr. Cragg, former chief of the Natural Products Branch of the National Cancer Institute, was throughout his career a tireless advocate for the conservation of nature in order to maintain the rich chemical diversity that has so often been vital to the development of new pharmaceuticals.

Research scientists from academic and corporate programs came together to present the results of their research in the natural products field. Their contributions touch upon recent methodological innovations, the legal and ethical landscape, and the future direction of natural products research.

Contents

A Tribute to Gordon Cragg. James S. Miller

Marine-derived Compounds: New Frontiers in Production. David J. Newman

Amphibian Skin: A Remarkable Source of Biologically Active Natural Products. John W. Daly

Bioprospecting Uncultured Microbial Biodiversity. Boris Wawrik, Tinatin Doolotkeldieva, Djumaniyaz Kutliev, Lee Kerkhof, Gerben J. Zylstra,and Jerome J. Kukor

Genomic Tools for the Discovery of Natural Products: What Have We Missed? James B. McAlpine

Pivotal Connections: Tracing Support by the Natural Products Branch to Drug Discovery from Marine Organisms. Eric Andrianasolo, Patricia M. Flatt, Kerry L. McPhail, T. Luke Simmons, and William H. Gerwick

Bioprospecting in the Cragg Era: Accomplishments and the Road Ahead. Michael J. Balick

Two-tiered Systems for Access and Benefit-sharing Agreements to Balance the Interests of Source Countries and Researchers. Michael A. Gollin

Envisioning Equality: Re-imagining the Political Economy of Biological Resource Use. Bronwyn Parry

Transdisciplinary Team Science and Lessons from the International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups. Flora N. Katz and Joshua P. Rosenthal

Nature`s Potential: How Many Drugs Could Come from Plants?. James S. Miller

Natural Products as Sources for Drug Development: The Case of Paclitaxel (Taxol). David G. I. Kingston

Bioprospecting Endophytic Microbes. Gary Strobel

The Metabolic Versatility of the Methymycin/Pikromycin Biosynthetic Pathway. Jeffrey D. Kittendorf and David H. Sherman