druggable<\/a>\u201d biological targets. Typically the targets are proteins that are linked to the underlying disease pathology. Academic research labs are one of the most important sources of these new targets and this initiative directly seeks to leverage the untapped potential of established research programs at UConn Health, UConn Storrs, and Yale. Other targets will be identified based on genomic research performed at UConn\u2019s Institute for Systems Genomics, a cross-campus initiative spanning the Farmington and Storrs campuses, as well as the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine.<\/p>\nOnce a potential target has been identified, the next step is to synthesize large quantities of the purified target protein. That process, as well as characterization of the proteins, will take place in a core facility housed in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biophysics at UConn Health.<\/p>\n
These purified proteins can be used in high throughput screening campaigns to identify lead compounds that modulate the protein\u2019s activity. Assay development and screening will be carried out in the Yale Center for Molecular Discovery under the supervision of Crews, the Lewis B. Cullman Professor of Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology. The compounds discovered in the screen will be given to the originating labs to be used as reagents to investigate the biological system of interest.<\/p>\n
For select projects with high entrepreneurial potential, the lead compounds from the screens will serve as a departure point for the development of novel lead matter to serve as the foundation of new start-up or licensing activities. The resulting new compounds will be optimized by medicinal chemists in UConn\u2019s School of Pharmacy, under Wright’s direction. His team has a longstanding interest in drug design and development, and welcome this new opportunity to work with faculty from UConn Health and from Yale.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the first time researchers from UConn and Yale have collaborated on such a large-scale project,\u201d says Weller. \u201cOne of the most direct benefits will be increased productivity at both institutions thorough synergistic and collaborative efforts. Additional long-term benefits to the universities and the State of Connecticut come from the intellectual property embodied in the discoveries themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
The project allows academic scientists from both universities to optimize the research outcomes in their laboratories, increasing the chances of commercializing those discoveries, says Crews.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe U.S. pharmaceutical industry is undergoing a major transformation driven by the expiry of patents, diminishing drug pipelines, and the high cost of conducting internal research and development,\u201d he says. \u201cThis is the optimal time to launch new biotech companies, and this program is designed to increase the speed with which it is done in our state.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The $10 million initiative will speed the commercialization of drug discovery research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":104424,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2231,2076,1862,1864,179],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[117],"class_list":["post-104339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-well-being","category-research","category-busn","category-pharm","category-uconn-health"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-11 14:53:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104339"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106111,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104339\/revisions\/106111"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/104424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104339"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=104339"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=104339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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