Targeted therapeutic drug discovery program (TTP), a collaborative resource for early-stage drug development
Introduction
Drug discovery research is a moving target, continually adapting to the opportunities afforded by new technologies. While cancer researchers continue to identify clinically significant cancer-related targets, a critical challenge in building upon these discoveries and advancing to pre-clinical testing is the lack of access to the specialized and cutting-edge resources necessary to support the early phase of the drug development effort. By providing a holistic early-stage drug discovery platform to help investigators identify potential new drugs, the Targeted Therapeutic Drug Discovery & Development Program (TTP) fills this critical gap.
Methods
TTP assembled the resources and a multidisciplinary team of scientists with expertise in specialized research technologies to support scientists interested in embarking on new drug-discovery programs.
Results
TTP has an in-house library of 80,000 diverse small molecules and supports the preparation of highly purified proteins required for performing biochemical-based screens. TTP provides expertise in assay development, high-throughput chemical screening, mechanistic enzymology, target validation, and cell-based screens. Once hit compounds have been validated, progression to lead compounds is facilitated by cheminformatics, computational modeling, and synthetic organic chemistry platforms provided by TTP.
Conclusion
Currently, novel inhibitors for a range of targets, including protein kinases, ATPases, oxidases, and DNA polymerases are under development. Projects may benefit by collaborating with TTP at various stages within the pipeline.