Neglected Diseases Drug Discovery Meeting Held at Ohio State

The Ohio State University recently played host to the First Medicinal Chemistry Network Meeting sponsored by the World Health Organization/Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR). This meeting, which was held on 12/10/07 and 12/11/07 at the Blackwell, brought together medicinal chemists from the pharmaceutical industry (Pfizer, MerckSerono, and Pharmacopeia) along with several academic institutions (the University of Cape Town, the University of Nebraska, the University of Dundee, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy). The medicinal chemists in this network are preparing new compounds against the TDR target diseases (malaria, tuberculosis, leishmaniasis, African trypanosomiasis, Chagas disease, schistosomiasis, lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis) that will hopefully lead to new drug candidates in the future. As part of TDR’s strategy to facilitate an effective global research effort against these diseases of poverty, the meeting provided an opportunity for network members to meet face-to-face and exchange valuable ideas and experiences.

The members of the network from The Ohio State University are Karl Werbovetz, Associate Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy (top row, extreme left) and Jean Fotie (bottom row, middle), a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Werbovetz’s lab. Their project within the network involves making compounds against African trypanosomiasis. An estimated 50,000 people in sub-Saharan Africa are afflicted with African trypanosomiasis (otherwise known as sleeping sickness) annually. The current drugs for treating sleeping sickness are undesirable. For example, the drug most commonly used against the fatal late stage of the disease is an arsenic-containing compound that causes death in about 5% of patients.

For more information on the TDR drug discovery network, visit the TDR website (www.who.int/tdr or contact Dr. Solomon Nwaka, leader of drug discovery for infectious tropical diseases at TDR (nwakas@who.int).

Relevant publications describing the drug discovery networks are:

Nwaka S. and Hudson A. Innovative lead discovery strategies for tropical diseases. Nature Reviews Drug Discovery 5, 941-955 (2006).
Hopkins A. L, Witty M. J.,and Nwaka S. Mission Possible. Nature 449, 166-169 (2007).

[ back to top ]

If you have trouble accessing this page and need to request an alternate format, contact: webmaster@pharmacy.ohio-state.edu