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Funding Matters
Expanding Drug Discovery in Kansas
Building on expertise from its school of pharmacy, the University of Kansas established the Center for Cancer Experimental Therapeutics (CCET) in 2000. The center is one of 83 NCRR-funded Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE). "CCET researchers search for new drug leads and delivery methods for therapeutic agents for various forms of cancer," said Barbara Timmermann, CCET's principal investigator.
Two consecutive, five-year, $10 million grants from NCRR allowed CCET to launch a medicinal chemistry core with state-of-the-art facilities for synthesizing chemical compounds as well as a high-throughput screening core for identifying compounds that act in particular disease pathways. The screening core uses specialized equipment to screen entire "libraries" of candidate compounds. Such facilities are standard components of drug development programs at biotech and pharmaceutical companies.
Timmermann said having this infrastructure in place helped the university secure an $8.1 million grant from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in 2008. The grant established the Institute for Advancing Medical Innovation (IAMI), which builds on existing resources to speed the translation of medical innovations from the lab to patients.
"This is an excellent example of how COBRE funding works," said Sidney McNairy, director of NCRR’s Division of Research Infrastructure. "It lays the groundwork to establish a research platform in a specific area, which in turn enables the university to better compete for additional research funding and attract leading researchers."
Barbara Timmermann, who leads the NCRR-funded Center for Cancer Experimental Therapeutics, and Sitta Sittampalam, director of drug discovery at the Institute for Advancing Medical Innovation, develop new cancer drugs and therapies at the University of Kansas. Photo by Elissa Monroe, University of Kansas Medical Center.
CCET scientists already are using advanced methods in medicinal chemistry and high-throughput screening for cancer research and drug discovery — the kinds of projects IAMI will support. "CCET's medicinal chemistry core will be particularly important to IAMI because the core is recognized as one of the top programs in the country," Timmermann added.
The timing for establishing IAMI could not have been better. Drug development has traditionally been the domain of the pharmaceutical industry, but now small biotech companies and universities are taking leading roles.
Among the promising molecules developed at the University of Kansas is a compound that blocks heat shock protein 90 (Hsp90), a key protein that helps cells grow. Brian Blagg, working at another COBRE on protein structure and function at the university's Lawrence campus, led the initial work to develop an Hsp90 inhibitor, which prevents cancer cells from continually dividing and multiplying.
"Companies are producing a number of Hsp90 inhibitors, but many have side effects," said Sitta Sittampalam, director of drug discovery and lead generation at IAMI. "We have discovered several compounds that target a different region of Hsp90 than other drugs and as a result they seem to have fewer side effects."
IAMI's mission is to make new compounds like these and new medical devices available to patients more quickly. The institute will provide seed funds for several new projects each year, encouraging sharing of resources within the university as well as partnerships with other institutes and industry.
IAMI has already attracted additional funding to the university. "It all started with NCRR funding 10 years ago," said Joan Hunt, vice chancellor for biomedical research infrastructure at the University of Kansas Medical Center. "We are now moving forward in carving out a place in translational research."
— LAURA BONETTA
To Gain Access: NCRR's COBRE are part of the Institutional Development Award (IDeA) program, which fosters health-related research and enhances the competitiveness of investigators at institutions in states in which the success rate for applications to NIH has historically been low. The program also serves unique populations, such as rural and medically underserved communities. For more information, visit www.ncrr.nih.gov/idea.
