URI_Research_Magazine_2011-2012_Melissa-McCarthy

Their big ideas in research are making waves with their discoveries of natural beneficial health products in everything from the oceans to the forests.

four years ago from UCLA after earning a doctorate in natural products chemistry from the University of West Indies, Jamaica. He became interested in the medicinal properties of plants as a boy growing up in Guyana, South America, where there were few doctors and even fewer pharmacies, Seeram said. He watched his grandmother treat ailments with plant-based, traditional medicines and it piqued his interest into what he calls “Nature’s Pharmacy,” a growing medicine cabinet whose potential is just being tapped. “You can’t be a better chemist than nature,” said Seeram. By now, most people know that berries contain powerful antioxidants, which can help to prevent cancer. Seeram contributed to this discovery with his research into pomegranates, a subject he co-edited in a book titled Pomegranates: Ancient Roots to Modern Medicine . More recently, he has made some interesting findings about the health benefits of maple syrup. Pure maple syrup from Canada, which Seeram studied in his Bioactive Botanical Research Laboratory at URI, contains 54 beneficial compounds, five of which are new molecules, Seeram and his research colleagues discovered. “Maple syrup is becoming a champion food when it comes to the number and variety of beneficial compounds found in it,” Seeram has said. The compounds have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects, among other beneficial properties. Working with professor Chong Lee from URI’s College of the Environment and Life Sciences, Seeram has learned that

some of the compounds in maple syrup inhibit enzymes that are important to the management of type 2 diabetes, one of several chronic diseases, which stands to benefit from his research. Seeram’s research into maple syrup was supported by grants from Canada’s agriculture agency. Excited by the findings, he sees a whole new world of potential natural product discoveries in the trees of New England. Why not harvest fall leaves, reduce them to a nutraceutical extract and put “fall in a bottle” he asks. The third professor who makes up the Natural Products Group, Daniel Udwary, researches the DNA of microorganisms to see how naturally occurring compounds are made. “How the bugs make the drugs,” is how he put it. An assistant professor of pharmaocognosy, who joined the College of Pharmacy faculty in 2007, Udwary uses technology to read the genome sequences of bacteria, a process called bioinformatics. Udwary is also in the process of cataloging and comparing the massive number of microbial genomes that have been identified. As he spoke, a computer behind him was sifting through data to find the genes in bacteria, a process that has become cost-effective to perform only in the last decade or so. “What we’re trying to do is look at everything,” said Udwary, who earned his Ph.D. in bio-organic chemistry at Johns Hopkins University. Bacteria are a rich source for natural products and the more that is known about them, the more useful they can be in fighting disease, he said. Our overall goal is to make new medicine.

Bringing URI Ocean Research to Bear on Rhode Island Economic Development 13