Nebraska Center for Molecular Target Discovery and Development

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Project Summary/Abstract: Overall Center Organization and Management Plan The goal of the Nebraska Center for Molecular Target Discovery and Development is to establish and expand physical and intellectual resources at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) and the University of Nebraska system that will catalyze the ability of its faculty to define, validate, and develop potential therapies against molecular targets for clinically important diseases. The Center aims to maximize investment from both the COBRE award and UNMC to enhance the research capabilities of the Institution, expand the translational capabilities of its faculty, facilitate career advancement of promising junior faculty in the area of targeted therapeutics, and efficiently drive discovery and development for the improvement of human health in Nebraska and the nation. This Center will (1) create critical infrastructure for the discovery and validation of molecular effectors critical to the development of disease and (2) deliver training and mentoring to promising new investigators willing and able to use that infrastructure to validate those effectors as therapeutic targets, identify small molecules for their manipulation, and create in vitro and in vivo preclinical models for their development as novel therapies. Center investigators bring a breadth of cutting edge expertise necessary to accomplish this vision. They share a common belief that many diseases can be effectively classified and characterized through detailed genomic, genetic, and molecular analyses to identify drivers and vulnerabilities from which will emerge unique therapeutic approaches. To realize this shared vision, the Center and its investigators will: 1) Establish an Administrative Core and mentoring programs to support and enhance research in target discovery and development; 2) Establish a critical mass of investigators focused on the identification, validation and development of therapeutic targets for disease treatment; and 3) Increase research capacity through scientific cores for high throughput chemical, RNAi and computational screening; mass spectrometry; and target validation.