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This ethnography examines how newly arising financial configurations of biotech research assemblages in Panama are changing local and global understandings of scientific collaboration and, subsequently, the relations among people, species, and nations. This study analyzes the social, scientific, and political-economic contexts of natural product scientists in a private, non-profit, and state-supported science park, the City of Knowledge. Natural products scientists are interdisciplinary researchers who study the chemical properties of naturally occurring compounds for potential industrial applications in pharmaceutical science, chemical engineering, and other biotechnological fields. They are networked globally and are working in the context of new and old technologies, and an array of biological organisms and the chemical milieu those organisms inhabit and constitute. The scientists’ research infrastructures thus, crucially, are also made up of these other biochemical and technological agents who are redefining human-nonhuman relations and, consequently, the production of health and well-being through interspecies care. This ethnography explores Panama’s experiments and failures in the knowledge economy. I zoom in on laboratory life and the scientific experimentation by natural products researchers on interspecies relations to produce different forms of value. I then turn to the politics and performativity of state funding mechanisms for science and technology and the rolling out of their precarious forms. I explore the meanings of collaboration in the ethnographic practice of data collection vis-à-vis the changing meanings of international cooperation in scientific knowledge production. From there, I examine emerging interspecies forms of care and planetary concerns around a rapidly spreading zoonotic fungal diseases throughout Latin America. This dissertation engages with debates in multimodal ethnography and sound studies to examine highly tacit modes of scienti

This ethnography examines how newly arising financial configurations of biotech research assemblages in Panama are changing local and global understandings of scientific collaboration and, subsequently, the relations among people, species, and nations. This study analyzes the social, scientific, and political-economic contexts of natural product scientists in a private, non-profit, and state-supported science park, the City of Knowledge. Natural products scientists are interdisciplinary researchers who study the chemical properties of naturally occurring compounds for potential industrial applications in pharmaceutical science, chemical engineering, and other biotechnological fields. They are networked globally and are working in the context of new and old technologies, and an array of biological organisms and the chemical milieu those organisms inhabit and constitute. The scientists’ research infrastructures thus, crucially, are also made up of these other biochemical and technological agents who are redefining human-nonhuman relations and, consequently, the production of health and well-being through interspecies care. This ethnography explores Panama’s experiments and failures in the knowledge economy. I zoom in on laboratory life and the scientific experimentation by natural products researchers on interspecies relations to produce different forms of value. I then turn to the politics and performativity of state funding mechanisms for science and technology and the rolling out of their precarious forms. I explore the meanings of collaboration in the ethnographic practice of data collection vis-à-vis the changing meanings of international cooperation in scientific knowledge production. From there, I examine emerging interspecies forms of care and planetary concerns around a rapidly spreading zoonotic fungal diseases throughout Latin America. This dissertation engages with debates in multimodal ethnography and sound studies to examine highly tacit modes of scienti

Das Ziel dieser Disssertation war es, bioaktive Naturstoffe zu identifizieren, die mit X-linked Inhibitory of Apoptosis Protein (XIAP), Östrogen Rezeptoren (ER und ER) und Protein-Tyrosin-Phosphatase 1B (PTP1B) interagieren. Dazu wurden drei Pflanzen untersucht: Ephedra sinica, Antidesma ghaesembilla und Agrimonia pilosa. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wurde eine Interaktion des Ethanol-Extrakts der oberirdischen Teile von Ephedra sinica mit XIAP entdeckt. Das XIAP-Protein ist das einzige bekannte zelluläre Protein, das die Aktivität der Säugetier-Caspasen inhibiert und so eine Apoptose-Resistenz hervorruft. Bioaktivitätsgeleitete Fraktionierung mittels eines in vitro-Flureszenz-Polarisierungs (FP)-Assays führte zu der Erkenntnis, dass mit Proanthocyanidinen angereicherte Fraktionen eine starke Aktivität besitzen. Der IC50 Wert der aktivsten Fraktion beträgt 9,57 M (CI95: 9,07-10,12 M), das entspricht einer Konzentration von 27,29 g/ mL (CI95: 25,88-28,87 g/ mL). Die Proben wurden mittels Thiolytischem Degradierungs/ HPLC-MS-Assay, LC-HRMS und 1-D-NMR analysiert. Mit Hilfe des Tiolytische Degradierungs/ HPLC-MS-Assays wurde ein mittlerer Polymerisationsgrad von 9,50 0,23 Einheiten für die aktivste Fraktion und 11,42 0,64 für die chemisch ähnlichste inaktive Fraktion. Die chemische Charakterisierung identifizierte (epi)Gallocatechin (76.58 1.00 % aktive; 80.71 2.71 % inaktive Probe) und (epi)Catechin Einheiten als Bausteine der untersuchten Proanthocyanidine. Interessanterweise sind diese Proanthocyanidine eine komplexe Mischung aus doppelt verbundenen A-Typ- (Bindung 2-O-7, 4-6) und einfach verbundenen B-Typ-Einheiten. Die identifizierten oligomeren Proanthocyanindine von E. sinica zeigten eine Inhibition von XIAP in vitro und in zellulären Assays. Der Antidesma ghaesembilla-Baum wurde in der traditionellen Medizin zum Abführen, gegen Kopfschmerzen, als Menstruationsstimulans und zur Steigerung der Milchproduktion verwendet. Dies lässt unter anderem auf eine mögliche Inter, Three plants were investigated in the course of this work: Ephedra sinica, Antidesma ghaesembilla and Agrimonia pilosa. The major aim was to identify bioactive constituents interacting with X-linked inhibitory apoptosis protein (XIAP), estrogen receptors (ER and ER), and protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B). The ethanol extract of the aerial parts of Ephedra sinica has been identified to interact with XIAP, which is the only known cellular protein, that inhibits activity of mammalian caspases and promotes resistance to apoptosis. Bioactivity guided fractionation monitored by an in vitro fluorescence polarization (FP) assay identified proanthocyanidin-enriched fractions as active principles. The most active fraction showed an IC50 value of 9.57 M (CI95: 9.07-10.12 M) corresponding to a concentration of 27.29 g/ mL (CI95: 25.88-28.87 g/ mL). Samples were analysed by a thiolytic degradation/ HPLC-MS assay, LC-HRMS and 1-D-NMR. The thiolytic degradation/ HPLC-MS assay revealed a mean degree of polymerisation of 9.50 0.23 units for the active fraction and 11.42 0.64 units for the most closely related inactive fraction. Chemical characterization identified (epi)gallocatechin (76.58 1.00 % active; 80.71 2.71 % inactive sample) and (epi)catechin units as building blocks. Interestingly, the investigated proanthocyanidins turned out to be a complex mixture of double linked A-type (binding 2-O-7, 4-6) and single linked B-type units. The identified oligomeric proanthocyanidins of Ephedra sinica exhibited XIAP inhibition in vitro and in cellular assays. The tree Antidesma ghaesembilla, also known as black currant tree has been used in traditional medicine as purgative, to treat headache, to stimulate menstrual flow and to increase breast milk production. Part of the described activities is possibly attributable to interactions with estrogenic receptors. Dichloromethane and methanol extracts of the bark of the plant exhibited notable estrogenic but also subtype specific anti-e, submitted by Mag. pharm. Sibylle Schäfer, Zusammenfassung in deutscher Sprache, Abweichender Titel laut Übersetzung der Verfasserin, University of Innsbruck, Dissertation, 2017, OeBB, (VLID)1974064

‘There are more things between heaven and earth…’ Despite the progress of science during the past four centuries, Shakespeare's words did not lose their actuality. Knowledge about the etiology of diseases is still limited, and for many life-threatening illnesses no effective treatments exist. Nature always has been a valuable source of drugs and, despite the unprecedented opportunities afforded by medicinal chemistry, continues to deliver lead compounds. Traditionally, research on natural sources was focused on terrestrial plants and microorganisms. More recently, however, organisms of marine origin are also being investigated. Here, the possibilities of unconventional and hardly explored sources are discussed.