The Natural Products Support Group is comprised of several laboratories responsible for various natural product-based support activities including the extraction of plant, microbial, and marine biota for the Natural Products Repository; pre-fractionation of natural product extracts for modern screening technologies; isolation and identification of biologically active natural products for downstream development efforts; and in vitro drug preparations.
We support the National Cancer Institute’s Natural Products Branch and house a growing collection of more than 200,000 extracts from plants, microbes, algae, and marine invertebrates from 25 countries for the National Products Repository.
Natural products for drug discovery
Our team aims to reinvigorate the study of natural products for drug development. We work with the NCI Program for Natural Products Discovery to generate more than 1 million partially purified natural product fractions to be sent to screening centers around the globe. Using automated, high-throughput chemical techniques, our chemists and researchers rapidly identify and isolate active compounds for follow-up studies.
Collaboration Opportunities
Access to and requests regarding the Natural Products Repository and Prefractionated Natural Products Library are granted through the National Cancer Institute. Access is subject to meeting specific conditions and signing a Material Transfer Agreement protecting the rights of all parties.
Contact NCINatProdRep@mail.nih.gov with questions.
Access the Natural Products Repository
Enhancing natural product extraction, screening
We designed a highly automated platform to generate a library of natural product fractions in collaboration with NCI’s Natural Products Branch. This process made the extract library more amenable to modern screening technologies, greatly enhancing the search for active natural products.
Integrated automation platform
A centralized robotic arm transfers tubes to and from an automated capper/decapper and weighing station, sample hotels, and a sample storage system.
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Automated loading of 2D-barcoded tubes
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Four-axis robotic arm
Automated fractionation
Natural product extracts are prefractionated: two robotic arms work in parallel to produce seven fractions per extract using a water and methanol gradient of decreasing polarity.
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Customized positive-pressure, solid-phase extraction workstation
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88 natural product extracts: 616 fractions in 3.5 hours
High-capacity centrifugal evaporation
We utilize high-capacity centrifugal evaporation systems to dry fractions. The final mass of each fraction is determined using an automated weighing station.
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2,304 fractions in 18 hours
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Fraction mass determination
High-performance liquid chromatography purification
Our high-performance liquid chromatography purification systems support isolation and resupply efforts. Active fractions are further separated on a Gilson purification system. If four samples are collected per plate, 44 samples, or 840 assay-ready sub-fractions, are ready within 13 hours.
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Gilson purification system with GX-281 liquid handler, 322-binary pump, and 172-photodiode array detector
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Bed capacity of 12 x 96-well plates
Chemistry Laboratory
Drug Processing Laboratory
Microbial Metabolites Laboratory
Automation Laboratory
