DRUG DISCOVERY CORE FACILITY (DDCF)

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. ABSTRACT: The overall goal of establishing a Drug Discovery Core Facility (DDCF) at the institution is to strengthen the research infrastructure for drug discovery at Florida A&M University through research collaboration in a focused and coordinated effort. It is a commitment to build and expand the investigator-initiated research activities on campus, taking advantage of the biomedical research successes encountered by the investigators during the past 20 years. Despite significant discovery of chemotherapeutic agents and their mechanisms of action, the need for new chemical entities having new mechanisms of action for the treatment of certain cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and the emerging infectious diseases remains high. Therefore, an aggressive exploitation of new curative agents is planned through research collaboration. One of the most active and productive research collaborations in the past has been in the areas of drug design and synthesis, as well as the pharmacological and biochemical investigations of various biologically active entities. These diverse projects have been supported by NIH (MBRS, MARC, BRIDGE and RCMI Programs), Department of Defense and research grant awards by NASA. Each of these projects has been pursued with research collaboration among the investigators in the College of Pharmacy and the College of Arts and Sciences, especially the Department of Chemistry. The establishment of the DDCF will expand and strengthen the achievements of the existing collaboration on campus. The focus of the institution's drug development strategy will be to develop novel drug candidates that can be used for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases (Parkinson's disease, stroke), cancer (breast and prostate cancers) and emerging infectious diseases. Another impetus for this activity is to take a step towards a remedy for the persistent disparity in the number of minority investigators involved in drug discovery research. The difficulty in implanting drug discovery research at historically black colleges and universities is due to the lack of adequate resources, trained investigators and research infrastructure for drug discovery. The establishment of the DDCF will go a long way into facilitating this dire need. This research is supported by NIH/NCRR/RCMI G12RR03020.