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Drug Discovery Program Helps Save Rainforests, Too
Sheri Quinn (2009-08-25)
Botanist Nayda Flores collects samples on the island of Coiba, off the coast of Panama. Photo by Rafa Aizprua
SALT LAKE CITY, UT (kuer) - In the 1990s, two University of Utah biologists started a drug discovery program in Panama to search for new pharmaceuticals in the jungle. But their main goal was to save the rapidly disappearing rain forests where they collected their plant samples. Now their team has identified a potentially novel cancer drug while helping to protect a small biologically diverse island called Coiba. Sheri Quinn reports.

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