Drug Discovery Core

Principal Investigator: Philip A. Cole, MD, PhD

Co-investigators: David Meyers, PhD, Jun Liu, PhD, Daniel Leahy, PhD

Many of the FAMRI-supported projects at Johns Hopkins are focused on identification or characterization of molecular factors contributing to the development of tobacco-caused disease.  Justification for these projects typically is based on the assumption that identified cellular and molecular factors may serve as potential targets for clinical intervention: targets that may be “drug-able”.  Identifying and optimizing chemical compounds with high affinity and bioavailability for these targets requires expertise and resources that are generally well beyond the scope of individual investigators or laboratories.  To help support discovery and optimization of compounds affecting the most promising of these targets, the Center includes a Drug Development Core under the direction of Phil Cole, chair of the Department of Pharmacology.  This Core includes several leading researchers at Johns Hopkins with expertise in the conduct of high throughput screens of large drug libraries, and in chemical synthesis to generate derivative families of initial promising compounds, as well as a eukaryotic protein expression facility to produce purified protein targets of interest.  Taken together, the components of this core comprise an integrated set of high-expertise tools for practical translation of FAMRI-supported basic research into potential novel therapeutics.