The Global Institute for Bio-Exploration, GIBEX, a joint initiative of the University of Illinois and Rutgers University, The Global Institute for Bio-Exploration, a joint initiative of the University of Illinois and Rutgers University, has become a model of sustainable, non-exploitive research on bio-exploration in developing countries.

Instead of the typical bio-prospecting approach, where researchers take plants back to their labs in Western Europe or the U.S., under the GIBEX program, initial screenings and assays are done in situ; thus, the intellectual property rights, should a discovery be made, stays with the country.

The program also is developing techniques for analyzing the soup of chemical compounds in wild plants. By screening plants in the field, the researchers are able to identify biological traits that might not be detectable after harvesting the plants and bringing them into a lab. This "screens to nature" technique is a departure from the laboratory based, one-enzyme-at-a-time analysis typical of pharmaceutical research, which often fails to detect the therapeutic potential of plants traditionally used by indigenous peoples.

Read more details from the UIUC.

Photo: In the market in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, vendors sell plant materials as foods and medicines. Credit: Mary Ann Lila and Ilya Raskin.