This program was established in 1992 to enable the extramural community to investigate NPR materials, which have not met the current requirements of the NCI screens, as potential sources of agents for the treatment of all human diseases. As of February, 1999, the program was expanded to include all human diseases. As of February, 1999, there were over 100,000 extracts in the Open Repository Program.
Requests for access to the Open Repository
Requests for NPR materials will be accepted from research organizations and individual investigators in the form of a brief proposal (up to 5 pages) formatted as follows:
- Introduction.
- Research Hypothesis.
- Screening Process, together with description of the characteristics of the screen.
- Personnel.
- Organizational Research Capabilities.
Requests will normally be reviewed by a committee of the NCI Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis (DCTD) staff appointed by the Director, DCTD. Ad hoc members from outside the Division, Institute, or NIH may be appointed as needed, while ensuring appropriate confidentiality of information provided in the proposal.
The review will consider primarily the scientific merit of the proposal related to the screening target for drug discovery, and the chemical and pharmaceutical expertise for adequate follow-up on the natural products supplied from the NPR.
The Committee to review applications for access to the Natural Products Repository will accept and review proposals on a continuing basis.
Distribution of materials from the Open Repository
- Vialed Samples: Samples (25 mg) contained in vials and identified by a code number and by taxonomy to
family level, may be shipped to a recipient at a maximum rate of 500 per month. If 15mg samples are sufficient
for testing purposes, NCI would prefer to ship these in 96-well plates as described below, rather than the
vialed samples.
- Particular genera and/or species within a family, or samples from specified Countries of Origin, may be included or excluded, as far as possible, from shipments if requested.
- Plated Samples: Samples are also available in 96-well polypropylene (15 mg or 500 ug, per well) or polystyrene (50 ug per well) plates; there is no restriction on the rate of shipment of plated samples. No initial exclusivity will be granted to the extracts, nor will any information other than the type and source of the extracts on a particular plate be provided (i.e. plate # contains 88 organic plant extracts at 50ug per well in lanes 2 through 12). Plates may also contain samples from the Active Repository Program; such extracts will only be available to investigators qualified for access to the Active Repository Program. Identical plates may be sent to multiple investigators.
- Up to 3 months from the date of shipment is granted for the initial testing of the vialed and plated materials.
On identification of active extracts, investigators will communicate with NPB directly by e-mail of fax, and will be informed whether or not the active materials are available. The test results and requests for additional samples of active extracts are submitted to:
Mrs. Erma Brown
Natural Products Branch, NCI-FCRDC
Fairview Center, Room 206
P. O. Box B, Frederick, MD 21702-1201
| Phone: | 301-846-5387 |
| Fax: | 301-846-6178 |
| Email: | browne@dtpepn.nci.nih.gov |
Requests must be copied to:
| Dr. Newman | newmand@mail.nih.gov |
Investigators will have active samples reserved for further investigation on a first-come first-serve basis. Where more than one investigator observes activity for a particular extract, it will be reserved for the first investigator to report activity, and a waiting list of other interested investigators will be established.
Extracts will not be available if they are under active study (on reserve) in either the Open Repository Program (maximum of 6 months exclusivity) or Active Repository Program (up to 15 months exclusivity with the possibility of extension, if necessary).
Once the relevant extract is released by the first investigator, it will be shipped to the next in line on the waiting list.
- A further supply of any active materials (75-100 mg), together with the rest of the taxonomy and relevant collection data, are provided.
- A further 3 months exclusivity is granted to permit secondary testing and/or initial isolation of the active agents. At the end of this time the recipient will inform NPB of its discoveries and its level of interest.
The maximum period of exclusivity on any extract is 6 months.
- At the end of the 6 month period from the initial receipt of the material, NPB will inform the Countries of Origin of the materials of the results obtained, using language agreed to in advance by the recipient.
- The Countries of Origin will be given the name of the recipient organization, and will be informed that the organization will contact them if further material is required. Acquisition of further material will normally be the responsibility of the recipient organization working through the original collector (if possible) and the relevant Source Country permitting agency.
- Since it is the responsibility of the NCI to ensure that the conditions of the Material Transfer Agreement (MTA) are maintained during this and subsequent stages of development, NPB will maintain interaction with the recipient organization and the Countries of Origin.
Further technical information may be obtained from:
Dr. David Newman
Natural Products Branch, NCI-FCRDC
Fairview Center, Room 206
P. O. Box B, Frederick, MD 21702-1201
| Phone: | 301-846-5387 |
| Fax: | 301-846-6178 |
| email: | newmand@mail.nih.gov |