The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced the funding of a network of nine centers across the US. These centers will use high tech screening methods to identify small molecules for use as probes to investigate the diverse functions of cells. The network - funded at about $70 million annually over the four-year production phase - is designed to increase the pace of development and use of chemical (small molecule) probes, which have become invaluable tools for exploring biologic processes and for developing new therapies for disease.
The Molecular Libraries Probe Production Centers Network is the second phase of a programme that started in 2004 as part of the Molecular Libraries and Imaging Initiative (http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/molecularlibraries/) under NIH's Roadmap for Medical Research. Using assays solicited by NIH from the research community, the network will screen a library of more than 300,000 small molecules maintained in the programme's Molecular Libraries Small Molecule Repository (http://mlsmr.glpg.com/MLSMR_HomePage/), located in San Francisco at Biofocus DPI, a drug discovery research company. Data generated by the screening is available to the public through PubChem, a database created and managed by NIH's National Library of Medicine.
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) will co-administer the network on behalf of NIH. Programme funding will transition out of the Roadmap in years five and six.
The nine institutions funded as part of the network are: The Burnham Center for Chemical Genomics; Broad Institute Comprehensive Screening Center; National Institutes of Health Chemical Genomics Center; The Comprehensive Center for Chemical Probe Discovery and Optimization at Scripps; Johns Hopkins Ion Channel Center; Southern Research Specialized Biocontainment Screening Center; University of New Mexico Center for Molecular Discovery; University of Kansas Specialized Chemistry Center; and the Vanderbilt Specialized Chemistry Center for Accelerated Probe Development.
