U chosen by NCI as Chemical Biology Consortium Center
The University of Minnesota was recently selected by the National Cancer Institute for a leading role in the newly formed Chemical Biology Consortium (CBC), a collaborative drug discovery partnership focused on advancing new cancer therapeutics active against novel molecular and genetic cancer targets.
Based on its expertise in drug discovery and development, and its strong history in cancer research, the University was chosen as a Chemical Diversity Center, one of four sites in the U.S. to be awarded this designation.
Gunda Georg, Ph.D., professor and head of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry, member of Masonic Cancer Center, and a principal investigator of the CBC at the University, was invited to join the CBC Steering Committee. The committee is an advisory panel that will ensure that the CBC Centers effectively support drug discovery and development projects that will ultimately provide novel therapeutics for NCI-supported clinical research.
According to Georg, the University was chosen as a consortium member because of its Masonic Cancer Center and the College of Pharmacy’s Institute for Therapeutics Discovery and Development. The CBC brings together an integrated network of chemical biologists, molecular oncologists, and compound screening centers from government and academia to focus on drug candidate identification and optimization. These efforts aim to enhance the entry of early-stage drug candidates into the NCI therapeutics pipeline.