Georgetown University Medical Center Establishes Center for Drug Discovery
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The Center for Drug Discovery (CDD) comprises members from various disciplines to collaborate in drug discovery and in the development of a pipeline for molecular targets. The Center will offer a full continuum from drug discovery through pre-clinical studies and clinical trials. In this regard, specialized teams will be formed to bring together medicinal chemists, biologists, scientists and physicians toward a common goal of discovery, and development of new interventions in areas of unmet need in cancer, neurological, cardiovascular and infectious diseases.
“Academic drug discovery is an emerging and much needed area for advancing human health,” explains Brown. “The CDD will help create a model academic center to actively support faculty and collaborators in providing innovative therapies for improving the care of patients.”
Initiatives include education, innovative and transformative research, collaborative programs, and embedded translational expertise, he adds.
The CDD is a translational medicine initiative made possible by the award of a Chemical Diversity Center grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and membership in the NCI Chemical Biology Consortium.
“Georgetown University Medical Center has a long history of distinguished leadership in drug discovery and development,” says Howard J. Federoff, M.D., Ph.D., executive vice president for health sciences at GUMC and executive dean of Georgetown’s School of Medicine. “The CDD will build on these strengths functioning as a vertically integrated research Center within GUMC that will interact with the existing research and clinical capabilities in the discovery and development of novel therapeutics in meeting its goal of multi-disciplinary research and education.”
In addition to serving as the Center’s director, Brown is principal investigator of the NCI Chemical Diversity Center grant. He holds the Edwin H. Richard and Elisabeth Richard von Matsch Endowed Chair in Experimental Therapeutics at Georgetown and is associate professor in the Department of Oncology. A national and international leader in academic drug discovery and development, Brown has filed new patents on novel compounds to treat cancer, epilepsy, pain, chronic kidney disease, hypertension, and radiation sensitizing and protective agents.
