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world for invertebrate species that might eventually save
human lives. Most of the animals Wright collects are from the
Atlantic and Caribbean, but a few samples are from the Galapagos
Islands and the Western Pacific. A small number were
collected from the Mediterranean, the Indo-Pacific, Western
Africa and the Bering Sea.
Wright and her team isolate and study chemicals secreted
as signals to other animals. “These marine invertebrates don’t
have the ability to move around,” Wright explains. “As a
result, they send out chemical signals to communicate with
either their same species or other species.”
Wright tells of some animals that expel noxious chemicals
meant to convince predators they are poisonous.
The goal of the Marine Natural Products Drug Discovery
Team, including Wright, John Reed and Dr. Shirley Pomponi,
is to harness the power of marine biotechnology to improve
the human condition through the discovery of better drugs,
alternative fuels and industrial chemicals.
Wright’s biggest discovery so far is from a compound
made by an invertebrate called a mangrove tunicate. “These
tunicates are found right here at home in the Indian River,”
Wright says. “We discovered and isolated an active compound
in this mangrove tunicate which has now been approved
in Europe to treat soft tissue carcinoma.”
Wright believes she’s found compounds that can cure
cancer, and she’s impatient that they have not been approved
for treatment. But the slowness of the process has not
stopped Wright from continuing her search. “I am so excited
about two other compounds that we have discovered,” she
says. “One chemical is from a sponge collected off of Fort
Lauderdale which blocks the division of cells. This would be
ideal for cancer treatment. The other is a compound from a
sponge found in Jamaica that has great ability to treat pancreatic
cancer.”
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Wright was recently awarded a grant from the National
Institutes of Health through its “Grand Opportunities”
Program. She and her team will now be able to purify the
compounds from 1,000 samples already collected.
Name: Amy E. Wright, Ph.D.
Age: 51
Family: A Schipperke dog.
Occupation: Director, Center for
Marine Biomedical and Biotechnology
Research.
Education: 1985 Postdoctoral Fellow,
Harbor Branch Foundation
SeaPharm Project; 1984 Ph.D.
Organic Chemistry, University
of California; 1981 M.S. Organic
Chemistry, University of California; 1979 B.S.
Chemistry, California State University.
What people don’t know about me: “They
know everything about me.”
What inspires me: “Discovering the unknown.”
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