The University of Tennessee Health Science Center is pleased to announce its membership in Eli Lilly’s Phenotypic Drug Discovery Program (“PD2 program”). Through this program, Lilly will evaluate new compounds developed at UTHSC for novelty as well as potential candidates for new drugs to bring to market.
As a member of this program, all UTHSC researchers are invited to submit information about the molecular structures of compounds for the purpose of performing cheminformatics screening using automated computer-based methods. The target compounds for screening include small chemical molecules, natural products and natural product derivatives, excluding proteins, peptides, antisense oligonucleotides and RNAis. The current therapeutic areas of interest include oncology, neurological disorders, and metabolic diseases.
After the initial screening, Lilly may request the investigator to submit a physical sample of the compound for testing in the phenotypic cell-based assays. Lilly will provide a full report of the data generated from the assay. If the results are promising, Lilly will determine whether to proceed with initial discussions on a possible collaboration or license agreement.
Investigators will be able to submit information about the compounds via a confidential and secure web- based interface. Lilly will not have access to the compound’s structure. Only in the event of a collaboration or license agreement would Lilly have access to the structural information about a particular compound.
For more information about gaining access to this program, please contact Lakita Cavin at (901) 448- 7825, Lcavin@uthsc.edu or Debbie Smith at (901) 448- 4823, dsmith@uthsc.edu. You may also visit the PD2 site atwww.pd2.lilly.com for more information about the program.