Early Stage Translational Drug Discovery: Matchmaking UW Biology and Medicinal Chemistry Resources Towards High Impact Compounds and Outcomes

The University of Wisconsin-Madison hosts a rich breadth of biological research that could be advanced by the discovery and design of selective compounds that improve our understanding of intricate biological pharmacology and provide pathways for new disease therapies. However, identifying high-quality, structurally novel compounds with drug-like properties remains a challenging factor in drug discovery.

We plan to develop a UW–Madison library of at least 1,600 novel compounds, constructed from robust chemical methodologies already in hand and crafted using fundamental medicinal chemistry principles. In parallel, a compound purification center will be formally established to facilitate the flow of compounds through the purification and analysis process — a common bottleneck in library generation.

The compound library will be a mechanism to: foster cross-collaboration between UW chemists, medicinal chemists and biologists; identify new, therapeutically significant chemicals; generate new intellectual property for patenting; produce impactful studies; and establish the preliminary data needed for pursuing funding for new multidisciplinary research projects.