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CORVALLIS, Ore. - The potential for finding a cure for cancer or the ability to overcome spinal cord injury may very well lie within the complex molecular structure and genetic coding of blue-green algae found in the warm waters of the tropics.

But the research that may lead down that path - and the harvest of the necessary marine organisms - requires a working relationship with developing countries that does not often exist. However, a new grant to Oregon State University researchers may become the model for how visiting scientists and host countries can forge a working relationship that is beneficial to both parties - and protective of the environment.

The five-year, $3.7 million grant expands an existing program in Panama through which the Smithsonian Institute historically has studied terrestrial plants. For the next five years, Bill Gerwick, an OSU professor of pharmaceutical sciences, and his research team will provide leadership for expanding the search for useful natural products into the rich waters of the Caribbean and Pacific off Panama.

The grant comes through the Fogarty International Center, which receives the funding from a composite of federal agencies including the National Institutes of Health and its National Cancer Institute, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

"The grant is under the auspices of the International Cooperative Biodiversity Groups, or ICBG, and they have a wonderful set of goals," Gerwick said. "Unfortunately, bio-prospecting historically has been associated with bio-piracy, and this is an opportunity to change all that."

Much of the $3.7 million will remain in Panama, Gerwick said. The grant - and future ICBG grants - require the researchers to work with host countries to build their scientific infrastructure, catalogue species and conduct biodiversity inventories, train native individuals, promote conservation, conduct public outreach, and contribute to local economic development.

Gerwick says he looks forward to helping the Panamanians preserve their pristine coastline, while developing their scientific potential.

"We visited the island of Coiba, which has been a prison island for the last century, so essentially it was taboo," Gerwick said. "And it is so pristine. There were monkeys sitting and eating fruit on this untouched white sand beach that acted like they'd never seen a human. There is pressure to build hotels and develop the site, but there also is a move to make the island a national park.

"The waters have some of the richest biodiversity in the world, and the plants have extraordinary potential for medicinal uses," he added. "These tropical waters need to be protected."