Pharmacognosy

Dr. Badal McCreath is a distinguished young scientist who holds the 2014 Elsevier Early Career Woman Scientist award in Chemical Sciences for the Latin America and Caribbean region. She has over 10 years’ experience in natural products research and holds a patent pending for the anticancer potential of natural products using cancer and normal cell lines. Dr. Badal McCreath holds a number of national and international awards and distinctions. At the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, she was the 2010 Inaugural Luther Speare Scholar in addition to being the Young Scientist/Technologist awardee at the biennial 23rd Science and Technology Conference and Expo hosted by the Scientific Research Council and the Jamaica Public Service Co. She along with collaborators was also the recipient of the 2013-2014 Principal’s award for best work in anticancer research, UWI, Mona. She is a current member of various editorial boards including: The Journal of Cancer Science & Clinical Research and American International Journal of Biology. She is also an advisory board member and reviewer affiliated with Open Access Biochemistry, London. Dr. Badal McCreath is currently a Lecturer in the Department of Basic Medical Sciences at the UWI, Mona, Jamaica. In addition to having taught Pharmacognosy for 3 years at the University of Technology, Jamaica, her current work involves pioneering the development of novel Jamaican prostate cancer (PCa) cell lines - a project that received national funding totaling approximately 100,000 USD. As PCa incidence and mortality rates are highest among men of African descent, the development of these tools representative of PCa tumors will be available to the global scientific community in order to delineate reasons for the reduced survivorship among this group. These novel cell lines can be used to screen potentially derived natural drug leads for anticancer efficacy utilizing a personalized framework. Dr. Badal McCreath is a well published author who is currently penning her first book, “A woman’s journey to success.” She is a dynamic scientific orator who has presented at many scientific meetings and conferences. She continues to share her expertise by training and supervising students at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels while volunteering on various nonprofit organizational boards including the Society for Scientific Advancement. She is passionate about implementing a framework that can elevate the nature of biomedical research in Jamaica and the Caribbean with a specific focus on anticancer research. Such a framework that will utilize the country's own natural resources can contribute to improving Jamaica's and the Caribbean's economic standing as they obtain a global competitive edge. She is also deeply committed to improving science awareness and interest at the primary and secondary levels. Dr. Yuri N. Clement received his B.Sc. in Chemistry and Ph.D in Pharmacology from the University of the West Indies. He was appointed Professor of Pharmacology in February 2017. Dr. Clement has supervised PhD and MPhil students and was chair of the COVID-19 Therapeutics Review Committee in March 2020. He has written several book chapters, research articles in international and local scientific journals. Dr. Clement is a member of the Caribbean Academy of Sciences since 2012, and from the Traditional Medicine in the Islands since 2006.

Section 1: Pharmacognosy 101 1. Background to pharmacognosy 2. Traditional medicine 3. Plant anatomy and physiology 4. Plant constituents: carbohydrates, oils, resins, balsams, and plant hormones 5. Plant crude drugs Section 2: Plant metabolites: their chemistry 6. Evolutionary perspectives on the role of plant secondary metabolites 7. Glycosides 8. Alkaloids 9. Tannins 10. Terpenoids 11. Other plant metabolites 12. Vitamins Section 3: Plant metabolites: their effects 13. Chemotherapeutics 14. Bioactive plant molecules, sources, and mechanisms of action in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases 15. Plant metabolites for treating diseases 16. Psychoactive drugs Section 4: Metabolites from other sources 17. Marine metabolites: oceans of opportunity 18. Animal metabolites: from amphibians, reptiles, Aves/birds, and invertebrates 19. Fungal metabolites: a focus on endophytes Section 5: Crude drugs from animals 20. Fats 21. Waxes Section 6: Basic animal anatomy and physiology 22. Basic animal anatomy and physiology 23. Proteins 24. Pharmacokinetics 25. Pharmacodynamics— a pharmacognosy perspective 26. Drug metabolism Section 7: Technological applications using biological systems 27. Biotechnology: principles and applications Section 8 Current trends in pharmacognosy research 28. Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in drug discovery 29. Metabolomics approach in pharmacognosy 30. Novel targets in drug discovery 31. Nanotechnology: creating, manipulating, and observing nanostructured systems in biology and medicine 32. Ethical aspects of working with local communities and their biological resources 33. Factors to consider in development of nutraceutical and dietary supplements 34. The global regulatory framework for medicinal plants