The idea behind the program is to collect samples from unusual environments throughout the Commonwealth, with the goal of finding new, unique organisms that produce natural products that could potentially be used to develop new drugs with an initial focus on treatments for cancer, infectious disease and inflammation.

UK drug discovery/development investigators will have the potential opportunity to engage NIH scientists and infrastructure to advance specific translational objectives. The function of this exercise is to identify projects suitable for NIH partnership and facilitate the engagement by NIH.