Academic researchers have traditionally focused on the earliest stages of basic medicinal research. This investment in basic science has led to tremendous strides toward understanding the human genome and the relative protein products that play key roles in human disease. Moreover, academic chemists have leveraged a growing set of synthetic tools to generate increasingly large sets of bioactive molecules that could potentially attenuate such diseases. Unfortunately, few academic institutions have the capabilities and expertise that are required to evaluate and optimize these bioactive molecules into agents that possess all of the characteristics required of suitable drug candidates.
Scientists at the Emory Institute for Drug Discovery will partner with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Alnylam Pharmaceuticals on research aimed at developing new drugs for neglected tropical diseases in least developed countries.