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news.The National Institutes of Health has revealed plans to invest $88.9 million to establish a collaborative research network that will use robotic high-throughput screening methods to identify small molecule probes as tools for new drug discovery.
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The NIH will offer the money as part of grant awards to nine institutions over a three year period. According to Dr Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute for Mental Health, the new network “will be the engine of discovery in the NIH Roadmap Molecular Libraries initiative”.
Small molecules are expected to offer great potential to help scientists in their efforts to learn more about key biological pathways involved in human health and disease, and should lead to safer and more effective drugs for the treatment and prevention of a range of disorders such as cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.
Data generated from the research will also be made available to researchers in both the public and private sectors through the PubChem database, created and managed by the National Library of Medicine at NIH.
Southern Research was one of nine US research organizations selected to participate in the NIH Roadmap Molecular Libraries initiative to support multidisciplinary medical research.
Southern Research, accredited with the discovery of six FDA-approved anticancer drugs, will operate the Southern Research Molecular Libraries Screening Center (SRMLSC), receiving an estimated $11.6 million in NIH grant support during the three-year period.