The Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research at Cornell University has received a $3 million, six-year grant from the Park Foundation of Ithaca, N.Y., to initiate new biodiversity projects.

"The study of global biodiversity is a priority of the United Nations Development Program and many national agencies around the world. The Boyce Thompson Institute has specific expertise that can enhance these international efforts," said Charles J. Arntzen, president and CEO of the institute.

As population and industrialization increase, humanity is endangering the world's wildlife and plants by dramatically altering ecosystems. Previous biodiversity studies have shown that loss of habitat is resulting in extinction of many species.

"The analyses have also shown that we do not yet even fully understand the importance of what we may be losing. This missing knowledge is what the BTI scientists plan to contribute," Arntzen said.

"The link between the Park Foundation and the Boyce Thompson Institute is a natural," said Dorothy Park, chair of the Park Foundation Board and wife of the late founder of the foundation Roy H. Park Sr. "My husband was an active member of the Boyce Thompson board for many years and always had an interest in agricultural research and education. My son, Roy, who shares the same interest, is now a member of the Boyce Thompson board. Our foundation has an overriding interest in education, particularly in projects which will create a healthier environment."

Specifically, the institute will focus its attention on the diversity of chemicals that organisms use to establish their position in ecosystems, and on the importance chemicals play in regulating how successfully an organism interacts with its neighbors and defends itself from predators.

"This new field of study is often called chemical ecology," Arntzen said, explaining, "By learning more about the molecules that plants and associated organisms produce in natural environments, we can learn what factors are important in stabilizing endangered ecosystems."

The institute has expertise in environmental biology, genetics and biotechnology. As new information on naturally occurring chemicals is added to these programs, strategies to obtain new plants with improved nutrition or health benefits can be developed. The new biodiversity project may also lead to new discoveries relating to pharmaceuticals, since approximately half of existing drugs were derived originally from chemicals extracted from plants. Identifying valuable products in endangered species can be an important consequence, since demonstration of value provides world-wide incentives to limit loss of biodiversity from the planet.

"I am impressed at everything Boyce Thompson has accomplished working with the environment," said Roy H. Park Jr. "This new biodiversity program not only links Boyce Thompson closer with Cornell University but also with global activity in this field. These links should more rapidly lead to new medical, pharmaceutical, and nutritional discoveries from our biological environment."

Arntzen said that the new grant will be an extremely important factor in the institute's choice of future directions. BTI also plans to use the grant to recruit a senior faculty member with international stature. "We hope to work with our colleagues at Cornell University in our new activities, since there is tremendous talent in chemistry and ecology in this community," he said. The funds will also allow BTI to attract young scientists, and let them focus their talents on biodiversity projects.

"Our focus will be on gaining new knowledge. We will be evaluating biodiversity in the global ecosystem, but also getting down to detailed molecular understanding of the factors that control how an organism successfully establishes itself in its environment, and what makes it vulnerable to man-made intervention," Arntzen said. "If we're going to encourage individuals and governments to be concerned about maintaining a sustainable environment, we must gain convincing information about the value of the untapped biological resources that surround us."

BTI is an independent not-for-profit organization on the Cornell campus.