N E W S  A R C H I V E 

RESEARCH NEWS

First Epigenetic Probe Discovered at UNC

G9a/GLP selective methyltransferase chemical probe UNC0638 released June 1, 2010.

FUNDING & COLLABORATIONS

William Janzen receives small grant from National Institute on Drug Abuse for High-throughput Screening for the Discovery of Novel Scaffolds that Antagonize Methylated Histone Recognition. (1R03-DA030553)

CICBDD to collaborate on NIH Transformative R01 grant awarded to Dr. Mark Zylka, Asociate Professor of Cell and Molecular Biology, UNC School of Medicine.  

This research will focus on harnessing particular enzymes found on the membrane of pain-sensing neurons and determining if these enzymes can be used alone or in combination to treat acute and chronic pain. In collaboration with a group headed by Stephen V. Frye, Ph.D. at the Eshelman School of Pharmacy, Zylka will use medicinal chemistry to synthesize “prodrugs,” pharmacologically inactive compounds that convert to the active form of the drug within the body.

OTHER ITEMS

• Frye Leads UNC Team Selected for NCI Drug-Discovery Initiative
• Stephen Frye / UNC help found NC Drug Discovery Center of Innovation

Jian Jin to lead project funded by NIMH as supplement to U19 grant to collaborator Bryan Roth, PI (3U19MH082441-03S1) Functional Selectivity: A Novel Approach for CNS Drug  Discovery 

The overall objectives of this project are to create novel dopamine D2 ligands with unprecedented patterns of functional selectivity for elucidating the key signal transduction pathways essential for antipsychotic efficacy, and to discover novel, functionally selective antipsychotic drug candidates that are safer and more effective than existing antipsychotics. 

Stephen Frye is awarded NIH Challenge Grant from the National Institute of General Medical Science for Discovery of Small Molecule MBT Domain Antagonists. (1RC1GM90732)

The primary objective of this research is to develop potent antagonists of methyl-lysine recognition by human and Drosophila MBT domain containing proteins in order to permit exploration of the biological consequences of blocking this recognition in cell based and in vivo models with relevance to normal and disease biology.