#  Global health, biodiversity, and therapeutics innovation: 

 



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The world has been strongly affected by COVID-19, highlighting the need for the swift development of new vaccines and therapeutics through global cooperation. Natural compounds from endemic species, including plant, marine, and fungal organisms are a promising source for chemists, biologists, and botanists to discover new drugs such as antivirals. They have historically proven their value as a source of molecules with therapeutic value, and they are still today.

Since biological diversity is chemical diversity, Latin America's biodiversity holds enormous potential to provide natural drugs, as it is highly diverse in its biotic makeup, with five major biodiversity hotspots with many endemic organisms spanning several countries and ecosystems. The biota of these areas is relatively well-categorized, but little attention has been paid to their chemical composition.

In partnership with the United Nations, a new legal framework has emerged, the Nagoya protocol, for sharing the monetary and non-monetary benefits of exploring biodiversity. The new legislation regulates natural biochemical and genetic material research and commercial use, supporting greater equity and inclusivity, particularly regarding indigenous populations. Over the last decade, it has been implemented in most countries with varying degrees of enforcement.

## The Project

Our pioneering seminar with the [Radcliffe Institute](https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/collabinnov/may-13-14-2021-biodiversity-and-novel-therapeutics) in April 2020 and June 2021 on [*Biodiversity and Novel Therapeutics*](https://projects.iq.harvard.edu/collabinnov/may-13-14-2021-biodiversity-and-novel-therapeutics) discussed the potential for new medicines and paved the way for a pilot project searching for antivirals against COVID-19. Driven by Harvard faculty in partnership with scientists and scholars from the S-to-S-to-N network, multidisciplinary collaborations were established with academic institutions from the Americas and Europe — the Harvard University Herbaria, the Salk Institute from California, INDICASAT from Panama, CONICET and the lab of the National Patagonian University-San Juan Bosco from Argentina, the University of Costa Rica, the University of Las Américas of Ecuador, the Austral University of Chile, and the University of Lisbon, Portugal.

To date, hundreds of extracts from plants, algae, and fungi have already been prepared by our partners from California and Argentina and are being tested for antiviral activity against COVID-19 by in vitro screening.

## Leaders

Verónica Vargas, Ph.D.  
Associate, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University  
Research Associate, Universidad Alberto Hurtado, Chile

**Board Members**

Donald H. Pfister, Ph.D.  
Asa Gray Research Professor of Systematic Botany  
Curator of the Farlow Library and Herbarium, Emeritus  
Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University

Pamela Maher, Ph.D.  
Research Professor and Head, Cellular Neurobiology Laboratory  
Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, California, USA

Dr. Barry O'Keefe, Ph.D.  
Chief, Natural Products Branch, Division of Cancer Treatment and Diagnosis  
National Cancer Institute, USA