Category: Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery
UNC Researchers Receive NIH Grant to Improve Efficacy of Chemotherapy Drugs
January 21, 2014A team led by Cyrus Vaziri, PhD, and William Janzen at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has received a grant from the National Institutes of Health for research that could help make chemotherapy drugs more effective. Vaziri, the lead principal investigator on the grant, is an associate professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the UNC School of Medicine. Janzen is the director of assay development and compound profiling at the Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. The R01 grant will provide up to $860,000 … Read more
Jin Receives NIH Grant to Develop Chemical Probes
July 10, 2013Two years ago, Jian Jin, PhD, and a team of researchers created chemical probes that specifically hone in on the enzymes G9a and GLP, two relatively new potential drug targets. Now, Jin has an R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health to take that research to the next level. Jin, an associate professor at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, has received a three-year, $950,000 grant to develop in vivo chemical probes for targeting the two proteins, which affect a wide range of biological functions in humans. The research will build on Jin’s work in 2011, when he led … Read more
School Researchers Discover First-in-Class Chemical Probe
March 7, 2013A team of scientists led by researchers at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy have discovered a first-in-class chemical probe that will give researchers a powerful tool to investigate the function of malignant brain tumor domains in biology and disease. The discovery is discussed in the cover story of the March 2013 issue of Nature Chemical Biology. Lindsey James, PhD, a research assistant professor at the School, is the first author for the article. Stephen Frye, a Fred Eshelman Distinguished Professor at the School and director of the School’s Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery, is one of … Read more
Roth, Jin Receive NIH Grant to Develop New Schizophrenia Drugs
September 17, 2012Two faculty members at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy are part of a multi-investigator team that has received a five-year, $7.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to create novel drugs for the treatment of schizophrenia and related disorders. Bryan Roth, PhD, MD, a Michael Hooker Distinguished Professor in the UNC School of Medicine and the pharmacy school, is one of the lead investigators on the grant. Jian Jin, PhD, an associate professor and the associate director of medicinal chemistry at the pharmacy school’s Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery, is the principal investigator for … Read more
Frye Awarded $1 Million Eshelman Professorship
July 26, 2012The UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy has named Stephen Frye, PhD, as the recipient of a $1 million Eshelman Distinguished Professorship. Frye is the director of the School’s Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery, a research group bringing dedicated medicinal chemistry expertise to bear on biological targets of therapeutic relevance that are under investigation by UNC faculty. CIBDD project teams work with other groups on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus to move potential drug targets through the drug discovery and development process. “The Eshelman professorships support outstanding scholars and researchers like Dr. Frye who are working at the forefront … Read more
UNC Research Center Receives Contract to Fight Kidney Cancer
March 8, 2012The Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has received a contract from SAIC-Frederick, Inc. to develop potential drug leads for treating renal cell carcinoma, the most common type of kidney cancer in adults. The contract, which is part of the National Cancer Institute’s Chemical Biology Consortium program, will provide more than $843,000 over eighteen months to support research led by William Janzen and Kimryn Rathmell, MD, PhD. Janzen is the director of assay development and compound profiling at the CICBDD, while Rathmell is an associate professor in the UNC … Read more
UNC Study Could Lead to Treatment for Angelman Syndrome
December 21, 2011Results of a new study by a team of researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill may help pave the way to a treatment for Angelman syndrome, a neurogenetic disorder for which there is currently no effective therapy. The most characteristic feature of AS is the absence or near absence of speech throughout the person’s life. The disease, often misdiagnosed as cerebral palsy or autism, is caused by mutations or deletions in the Ube3a gene inherited from the mother, or the maternal allele. The Ube3a protein produced by that gene is a key component of an important … Read more
UNC Scientists Create “Excellent” Probe to Study Gene-Controlling Proteins
July 11, 2011Collaboration between University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Canadian scientists has resulted in a molecular probe capable of specifically targeting two proteins that affect a wide range of biological functions in humans by controlling the expression of certain genes. The probe, called UNC0638, is a small molecule created by the researchers that targets the proteins G9a and GLP, which play a role in a variety of conditions from cancer to cocaine addiction. The probe was created in collaboration with the Structural Genomics Consortium based at the University of Toronto and is detailed in a paper published in Nature … Read more
Frye Awarded Two NCI Drug-Discovery Contracts
October 6, 2010As part of a national effort to accelerate the identification and testing of new anticancer drugs, SAIC-Frederick, Inc., a prime contractor to the National Cancer Institute has awarded two contracts totaling $2.4 million to two teams of UNC scientists to initiate the discovery of drugs for the treatment of childhood leukemia and brain tumors. Stephen Frye, PhD, professor of medicinal chemistry and director of the UNC Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery in the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, is principal investigator. Frye is also a member of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. The two centers are collaborating on … Read more
School Researchers Attract $2 Million in ARRA Stimulus Funding
October 6, 2009Faculty members at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy have been awarded grants totaling more than $2 million from the National Institutes of Health through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, commonly known as the economic stimulus bill or recovery act. At the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, we believe we have a special obligation to our fellow citizens to report on the projects funded with this money. This page will be updated as new projects are funded. Stephen Frye, PhD, “Discovery of Small Molecule MBT Domain Antagonists” Frye received a two-year $873,000 challenge grant to study proteins involved in … Read more