Noble Foundation Establishes U.K. Lab
Collaboration with University of York to Focus on Plant Natural Products

ARDMORE, Okla. — The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation and the Centre for Novel Agricultural Products (CNAP) at the University of York have announced a multi-year collaboration to focus on engineering plants as factories for bioactive chemicals. The agreement created a Noble Foundation Laboratory in the CNAP facility on the campus of the University of York in York, United Kingdom. The agreement further establishes an important research partnership between CNAP and the Noble Foundation focused on identifying and exploiting natural plant products to benefit agriculture and human health.

"We are excited about both the scientific outreach this collaboration represents and the potential our institutions have to develop plant-based products to influence and better human health," said Michael A. Cawley, Noble Foundation president.

The Noble Laboratory will be co-directed by Dr. Richard Dixon, Noble Foundation Plant Biology Division director, and Dr. Pierre Broun, metabolic engineering chair at CNAP. "The creation of this new laboratory represents a wonderful opportunity to develop new technologies based on the incredible diversity of biologically active chemicals found in plants for treatment and prevention of human disease and other adverse health conditions," Dixon said. "It also provides opportunities for enhancing the in-house programs at both Noble and CNAP in the area of agriculture, and for expanding our commercialization opportunities."

"I am delighted by this agreement between our two institutes," said Professor Dianna Bowles, director of CNAP. "We both have world-class expertise in the bioscience underpinning novel health product discovery. By combining our strengths and working together on new projects, we can move forward much more rapidly, both in research and in development of products for worldwide markets."

CNAP (www.york.ac.uk/org/cnap), a research center within the Department of Biology of the University of York, integrates expertise in biochemistry, genetics, plant biology, microbiology, and molecular biology. CNAP is dedicated to undertake and commercialize research directed to the use of plants and microbes to develop and produce novel industrial products in the areas of specialty and fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals, biosensors, phyto-remediation, and new materials, including novel fibers, and plant improvement through the introduction of novel traits. CNAP's work has important and wide-ranging applications in agriculture, manufacturing, and human and animal health.

The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation (www.noble.org), headquartered in Ardmore, Okla., is a nonprofit organization conducting agricultural, forage improvement and plant biology research; providing grants to non-profit charitable, educational and health organizations; and assisting farmers and ranchers through educational and consultative agricultural programs. It is a world leader in the biochemistry, molecular biology and metabolic engineering of plant natural products.

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Photo cutline: Dr. Rick Dixon, Noble Foundation Plant Biology Division director and co-director of the Noble Laboratory at the University of York's Centre for Novel Agricultural Products.

Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation: www.noble.org
Centre for Novel Agricultural Products: www.york.ac.uk/org/cnap

More news releases available at www.noble.org/Press_Release