Abstract

The Center for Integrative Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery (CICBDD) was created with the mission of bringing dedicated drug discovery expertise to bear on biological targets of therapeutic relevance under investigation by UNC faculty. Synthetic chemists, computational chemists, assay development and compound profiling scientists work collaboratively in the Center and create dedicated, multidisciplinary project teams with UNC researchers to progress targets through the drug discovery and development process.   Because the Center conducts research with collaborators across many divisions and therapeutic areas, a broad array of target classes and technologies are employed.  Nevertheless, because of their importance in signal transduction and their druggable nature, kinase enzymes are common targets for therapeutic intervention for numerous conditions and make up a significant portion of the portfolio.  In most cases, these projects involve a novel drug target and/or its relationship to disease, so many are poorly characterized enzymes.  This makes the research program both more interesting and more challenging.