Drug Discovery and Delivery Core
The former Molecular Structure and Modeling Core (MSM Core) has greatly expanded to the new Drug Discovery and Delivery (DDD) Core. The new DDD Core has a strong foundation in drug design, synthesis and delivery, and will play a key role in translating basic scientific discoveries into potential therapeutics for human diseases, such as cancer.
The overall objective of the DDD Core is to support multidisciplinary translational research at Xavier by providing leadership and service in the development of new chemical entities (NCE), in vitro and in vivo evaluation of NCE for pharmacologic activity, and design of novel and innovative pharmaceutical formulations for both pharmacologically active small molecules and novel peptide and protein drugs. Towards this we offer the following services:
Services Offered: The primary objective of the DDD Core is to provide services to support faculty research in the design, development, and delivery of new chemical entities (NCE). The core services are categorized into four groups as listed below:
- Molecular Modeling; 2) Synthesis; 3) In vitro/In vivo evaluation; and 4) Preformulation and formulation.
Figure illustrates how the core resources are organized to provide services to meet the overall goal of the RCMI program at Xavier.
Core Research Staff
Computational Chemistry and Molecular Modeling Facility.MadhusoodananMottamal, Ph.D. has significant expertise in computational chemistry and has been working at Xavier as a Core Scientist since 2010. He obtained a Ph.D. in Computational Chemistry in 1995 and has 17 years of experience in computational chemistry and molecular modeling. He will be responsible for providing computational support to various drug discovery projects. Dr. Madhusoodan can be reached via email.
Synthesis of New Chemical Entities (NCE) Facility. Shilong Zheng, Ph.D. is a talented Medicinal Chemist with expertise in synthetic organic chemistry and has been working at Xavier as a Core Scientist since 2011. He obtained a Ph.D. in Medicinal Chemistry in 2003 and has over 20 years of experience in synthetic medicinal chemistry. He will be responsible for providing synthetic support to various drug discovery projects. Since the synthesis of novel compounds can sometimes be a tedious process, he will be able to provide support for 4 synthetic SAR projects. Dr. Zheng can be reached via email.
Synthesis of New Chemical Entities (NCE) Facility.TBA. Since one of the key activities of this core will involve the synthesis and optimization of lead compounds in 7-8 drug discovery projects, we plan to recruit another experienced Medicinal Chemist to drive these projects. The ideal candidate should have a Ph.D. in synthetic medicinal chemistry with at least several years experience in drug synthesis. (S)He will be 100% committed to this facility to carry out various synthetic projects. (S)He will be responsible for providing synthetic support for 4 synthetic SAR projects.
In VitroScreening of NCE and In Vivo Study Facility.QiuZhong, M.D., Ph.D. has a broad background in clinical cancer biology and has been working at Xavier as a Core Scientist since 2011. He obtained a M.D. in Clinical Medicine in 1988 and a Ph.D. in Medicine and Pathology in 1997. He has 16 years of experience in conducting animal studies, molecular biology, immunology, gene therapy and cancer therapy research. He will be responsible for running the in vitro assays and in vivo animal studies proposed in this core. Dr. Zhong can be reached via email.
Drug Delivery Facility. Richard Graves, M.S., a Senior Research Associate at Xavier University, College of Pharmacy, has 18 years of experience in biomedical research. Mr. Graves has a M.S. degree in Chemical & Biological Engineering. He will be responsible for conducting various experiments, including preparation and evaluation of the formulations and preformulation studies. He will also be responsible for the management of the laboratory. Mr. Graves can be reached via email.
Important Information for Core Users
We hope the RCMI Drug Discovery and Delivery (DDD)Core is serving your research needs. As you are writing manuscripts, preparing presentations, and drafting grant applications that have resulted from core usage, please keep in mind the importance of citing the RCMI grant and following the NIH Public Access Policy. In order for a publication or presentation to be counted as productivity towards the RCMI Grant, it must be cited with the grant number and a publication must be deposited into PubMed Central.
Citations
Citations must credit NIH support. Please use the statements below when citing research that was completed with the assistance of an RCMI Core facility. If you are writing RCMI instrumentation into a grant, or using preliminary results obtained with the assistance of an RCMI Core facility, please cite RCMI in the grant application.
Support is provided in part by grant number 2G12MD007595 from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of NIMHD or NIH.
Obtaining a PubMed Central (PMCID) (This is different than a PMID!)
As a result of NIH's Public Access Policy , the final, peer reviewed author manuscripts of journal articles that are supported by NIH funding must be deposited into PMC via the NIH Manuscript Submission System (NIHMS) , as soon as the articles have been accepted for publication. Specifically, the final manuscript supplied to PMC is the version that the journal has accepted for publication, including any revisions that the author has made during the peer review process. For a detailed overview of this process, you can review RTRN Webinar on NIH Public Access Policy and Compliance.
You may deposit your final, peer reviewed manuscript through the Manuscript Submission Systemhttp://www.nihms.nih.gov/ , using your eRA Commons login, NIH login, HHMI login, or My NCBI login. There are FAQs at the bottom of the webpage and submission tutorials are also available. If you do not have access to one of these logins, please contact Erica Severan for assistance with submission.
Helpful links:
PubMed Central: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/
NIH Manuscript Submission System: http://www.nihms.nih.gov/
NIH Public Access Policy: http://publicaccess.nih.gov/
RCMI Translational Research Network: http://www2.rtrn.net/
Thank you for helping us to remain in compliance with the RCMI Grant and the NIH Public Access Policy. Should you have any questions, please contact the Core Directors, Tarun Mandal or Tien Huang.