Drug Discovery

The role of artificial intelligence in drug discovery has been limited by machine learning methods that fail when they encounter chemical structures they weren’t “trained” on. Assistant Professor Benjamin Brown has written a paper suggesting a more targeted approach: using a task-specific model architecture that’s intentionally restricted to learn from a representation of the interaction space between a protein and a drug molecule and be better able to generalize and figure out which compound might best interact with that protein. That’s important, because identifying those compounds early cuts the costs and time involved in developing drugs. Read More

Vanderbilt’s Carrie K. Jones and the University of Glasgow’s Andrew Tobin have received a prestigious £5 million ($6.2 million) Wellcome Trust Discovery Award to study how blocking the M5 muscarinic receptor in the brain could reduce opioid addiction while preserving pain relief. This groundbreaking international collaboration, supported by the Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery, aims to advance new treatments in the critical global health crisis of opioid use disorder. Read More

Led by Craig W. Lindsley, Vanderbilt drug discovery experts set out to develop a backup drug candidate to improve memory loss in people with Alzheimer’s disease. Read More

Using computer-aided drug design, Heidi Hamm, Craig Lindsley, and Jens Meiler and their labs generated a novel series of biologically active compounds that can serve as a basis for anti–blood clot preventative drugs. Read More

On October 17, 2022, Vanderbilt University launched “Discovery Vanderbilt” to embolden faculty, students and staff to pursue innovative ideas through disciplined, rigorous inquiry. Led by Provost Cybele Raver, the university committed $80 million in the effort—and invested $50 million in the first year alone. Read More

Join the next Lab-to-Table conversation, “Beyond Addiction: Therapeutic Developments and Societal Impact” on Jan. 24 at 11:30 a.m. CT. Read More

Biomedical engineer David Merryman and Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery director Craig Lindsley have developed a new drug that treats PAH, a type of high blood pressure that affects arteries in the lungs and in the heart, without serious neurological side effects. Read More

The laboratories of Brian Bachmann and Jonathan Irish have developed a method to discover new small molecules that may kill cancer cells by working through the body’s immune system. Read More

Behavioral and systems neuropharmacologist Jerri Rook is recognized by the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation with the Goodes Prize to continue her work in Alzheimer’s disease research. Read More

Sirenas, a San Diego-based company founded by Vanderbilt alumni Eduardo Esquenazi, BS'98, and Jake Beverage, BA'98, is applying trailblazing methods toward drug discovery. Read More

Vanderbilt scientists have developed a new process that can rapidly and inexpensively identify personalized cancer drugs derived from nature. Read More

Officials with Vanderbilt University Medical Center announced the creation of a wholly owned subsidiary, Nashville Biosciences, to harness the power of its extensive genomic and bioinformatics resources to advance drug and diagnostics discovery and development. Read More

Under the terms of the licensing agreement, Lundbeck has exclusively licensed rights to compounds developed at Vanderbilt that act on a receptor in the brain that has been implicated in schizophrenia. Read More

Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and Bayer have agreed on a five-year strategic research alliance to evaluate new drug candidates for the treatment of kidney diseases, with the goal of accelerating the translation of innovative approaches from the laboratory to pre-clinical development. Read More

Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), Vanderbilt University and Japan-based Ono Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. have expanded a drug discovery agreement initiated in 2015 that will now run through 2019. Read More

Geneticists have developed an effective new method for identifying the genes that produce the chemicals plants use to protect themselves from predators, which are an important natural drug source. Read More

A detailed structural and functional analysis of the yeast protein that is the main target of antifungal drugs will help direct efforts to develop better treatments. Read More

Vanderbilt University scientists have received notification from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that testing in humans may proceed for an investigational new drug for Alzheimer's disease after more than 10 years of research by scientists at Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Read More

Vanderbilt University has been selected as one of seven Dedicated Centers in the nation for the next phase of the Chemical Biology Consortium (CBC), a national network of scientists on the leading edge of cancer drug discovery. Read More

The primary method used to test compounds for anti-cancer activity in cells is flawed, Vanderbilt University researchers reported May 2 in Nature Methods. Read More