Winston-Salem, NC Jun 19, 2003
Targacept, Inc. announced today that it has received a federal grant for innovative drug discovery research.
The National Science Foundation awarded the Phase I grant through its Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, and it will support Targacept’s collaborative research with the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Wake Forest University’s School of Medicine (WFUSM) to develop computer software designed to predict biological activity of small molecules.
“This grant award, our first federal grant, speaks volumes about the strength of our drug discovery capabilities,” said William S. Caldwell, Ph.D., Targacept’s Vice-President of Drug Discovery and Development. “It offers an outstanding opportunity to accelerate the entire process of drug development.”
Jeffrey Schmitt, Ph.D., Targacept’s Scientific Director of Molecular Design, will serve as the principal investigator on the grant, working in collaboration with Peter Santago II, Ph.D., chairman of the Department of Biomedical Engineering at WFUSM, and Ersin Bayram, a doctoral student in Dr. Santago’s department at WFUSM.
Santago, who has been involved with the project since inception, remarked: “Predicting biological activity of small molecules is of critical importance to the pharmaceutical industry, and we believe that, through this research, we can create a tool that can accurately predict the very best drug candidates, as well as those destined to fail.”
Rebecca Harris, Senior Scientist in Targacept’s Molecular Design group, added, “This prestigious award will help us discover techniques that we expect to enable significant efficiencies and cost savings in the drug development process.”
Targacept, Inc. is a world leader in the discovery and development of nicotinic acetylcholine receptor-based therapies for neurodegenerative, neuropsychiatric and gastrointestinal diseases. The company has products in research and development for treating Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, dementia, ulcerative colitis, depression, pain, anxiety disorders and schizophrenia.
Contacts:
Debra Perret, Targacept, 336-480-2226, debra.perret@targacept.com
Robert Conn at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, 336-716-4587, rconn@wfubmc.edu