What is NatureBank?
GRIDD’s NatureBank is a unique drug discovery platform based on natural product extracts and fractions that have been derived from Australian plants, fungi and marine invertebrates.
These samples have been processed into two libraries (an 20,000 natural product extract library and a 112,000 natural product fraction library), which are ready for high-throughput screening against any disease. NatureBank also holds more than 30,000 archived biota samples.
About NatureBank
A resource you can access
NatureBank can accelerate biodiscovery and is accessible to researchers worldwide. The libraries have been shared with more than 30 universities, research institutes and companies.
Targeting biodiscovery
NatureBank is being used to search for:
- new drugs
- animal health products
- agrichemicals
- food ingredients or additives
- nutraceuticals
- cosmeceuticals
- other industry applications.
What is NatureBank?
GRIDD’s NatureBank is a unique drug discovery platform based on natural product extracts and fractions that have been derived from Australian plants, fungi and marine invertebrates.
These samples have been processed into two libraries (a 10,000 natural product extract library and a 50,000 natural product fraction library), which are ready for high-throughput screening against any disease. NatureBank also holds more than 30,000 archived biota samples.
Nature aids biodiscovery
Nature has played an important role in discovery and development of novel active molecules over the past 200 years.
Some natural products (or derivatives) exploited for wide use include:
- Paclitaxel (from the Pacific Yew tree bark), used in the treatment of breast, ovarian and non-small cell lung cancers
- Pyrethrins (from Chrysanthemum cinerariifolium ) which are potent insecticides
- Ivermectins (derived from bacterial cultures), used to treat many types of parasites in humans and animals
- Stevia (from the leaves of the Stevia rebaudiana plant), used as a sweetener and a sugar substitute.
To explore how NatureBank can aid your research, get in touch.
NatureBank services
NatureBank is housed at GRIDD and is accessible to industry partners seeking novel bioactive compounds on a negotiable basis. Screen our libraries for bioactive compounds or improve your libraries using our proprietary Lead-Like Extraction technique.
Our NatureBank services include:
- Supply of NatureBank extracts or fractions for screening on your assay systems, with follow-up isolation chemistry at GRIDD.
- Screening of NatureBank extracts or fractions or other libraries against your target, using our advanced high-throughput screening system.
- Processing and optimisation of your natural product libraries of biota or crude extracts into NatureBank fractions to create an assay-ready screening set.
Research collaboration
NatureBank samples can be sent to academic laboratories, companies and public research institutions around the world for biodiscovery projects.
We adopt a flexible and shared approach to these collaborations. Following the initial screening campaign, we work together to decide the next steps which may be:
- commercial development of the bioactive compound
- IP protection
- publication
- joint grant application.
If you’re an academic, or from a private or public company, contact us to find out more about accessing NatureBank and collaborating with us.
NatureBank in use
Antimalarial advances
A high-throughput screening campaign using the NatureBank fraction library and an in-vitro antimalarial assay identified active fractions derived from the Australian marine sponge Plakortis lita. Subsequent chemical investigations resulted in the discovery of the novel antimalarial agents, thiaplakortones A-D, two of which displayed nanomolar (or nM) activity towards drug-resistant parasites. Read the paper published in the Journal of Organic Chemistry.
Anticancer exploration
In order to identify new anticancer compounds from nature, a prefractionated library derived from Australian endemic plants sourced from NatureBank was generated and screened against the prostate cancer cell line LNCaP using a metabolic assay, resulting in the discovery of 6-AA, a new metabolite with nanomolar (or nM) anticancer activity. Read the chemistry paper published in the Journal of Natural Products. Mechanism of action (MOA) studies on 6-AA have shown that this natural product is a potent microtubule inhibitor, that binds in a unique mechanism.
Working with industry
NatureBank is available for risk-sharing or fee-for-service screening to provide lead molecules that hit your targets.
NatureBank Academic Lead – A/Prof Rohan Davis
A/Prof Davis was appointed the Academic Lead for NatureBank in 2017. Rohan is an accomplished natural products chemist and has authored >154 peer-reviewed publications in international chemistry/biology journals, and currently holds two patents. A/Prof. Davis has led both industry-funded and academic-based research projects that have resulted in the isolation and structure determination of >1000 natural products from plant, marine and microbial sources, along with the semi-synthesis of >200 derivatives using isolated natural products scaffolds and medicinal chemistry.