Welcome from the Director

Welcome to the National Center for Natural Products Research located in the Thad Cochran Research Center at the University of Mississippi.

We are a university-based, academic research entity devoted to the discovery and development of new pharmaceutical and agrochemical technologies based on the amazing chemical diversity of living organisms – plants, animals and microbes. Rapid developments in molecular biology and advances in the various “omics” have identified new potential mechanistic targets, opening exciting new avenues for discovery of novel drugs. New engineering and fabrication, materials science, separation methods, analytical instrumentation and other state-of-the-art tools have greatly enhanced our ability to rapidly discover new active compounds. Advances in cheminformatics and innovative hybridization of multidisciplinary fields have provided important conceptual and methodological advances, opening up pioneering research prospects in natural products discovery processes. All these developments make it an exciting time to be involved in natural product drug discovery and development.

We have nearly 100 research personnel working at the NCNPR in many different disciplines, including botany, plant physiology, pharmacognosy, analytical and medicinal chemistry, microbiology, molecular biology, pharmacology and toxicology, pharmaceutics and more. These scientists are the NCNPR’s greatest resource – our culture, creativity, productivity, passion and ultimately, our success, all depend on them.

Our most recent two decades of garnered knowledge in drug discovery has been directed to the development of natural products as a source of nutraceuticals, bio-pesticides and agrochemicals. In addition to product development prospects, NCNPR is the ideal organization for reference materials and research needs based on its cooperation with regulatory agencies in decision-making, association with industry, both national and international level networking, formal agreements with material sourcing partners and unique resources.

You are invited to visit Oxford and the Ole Miss campus to take a personal tour of our facility, the Thad Cochran Research Center, and to learn about the fascinating world of natural products research and our growing research programs. In the meantime, feel free to contact us with any questions or comments you may have.

Dr. Ikhlas Khan
Director