"Global Health, Biodiversity, and Therapeutics" Seminar June 9, 2023

This public seminar, organized by Prof. Donald Pfister, former director of the Harvard Herbaria and curator of the Farlow Library and Herbarium, and Dr. Veronica Vargas, a Research Affiliate at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University, addresses the potential for developing new therapeutics from Latin America's biota. Since biological diversity is chemical diversity, Latin America holds enormous potential to provide therapeutic natural drug products. Scientists have shown that natural compounds from endemic plants, fungi, and animals in both terrestrial and marine offer promising pathways for the discovery of new medicines, such as antivirals and antibiotics.  Latin America is highly diverse in its biotic makeup, with five major biodiversity hotspots with many endemic organisms spanning several countries and ecosystems. Diversity studies are enhanced by barcoding projects that further document the living organisms in these areas. The biota of these areas may be categorized, but more attention needs to be paid to their biochemical diversity. 

Registration Information

The workshop will take place on Friday, June 9, 2023, from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm EST, at the Harvard Herbaria and will be held in person and virtually. At this time in person registration is closed. We invite you to join via Zoom. 

The seminar program can be found here.

"Global Health, Biodiversity, and Therapeutics" Seminar

When: Jun 9, 2023 09:30 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada) 

Please register in advance for this meeting:

https://harvard.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwpdeGtpzMqGtxdTjClo5vH8FlRFW…;

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.