Molecule library wins grant

The National Institutes of Health has awarded a $9.57 million grant to KU for research that will help assemble extensive “libraries” of molecules that scientists use to develop drugs.

The grant will help establish the KU Combinatorial Methodology and Library Development Center of Excellence as the umbrella organization for the research. Fifteen investigators will take part in the research —12 at KU, one at the University of Missouri at Kansas City, one at Iowa State University at Ames, and one at Deciphera Inc., a Lawrence-based company.

Jeffrey Aubé, a KU professor of medicinal chemistry and project leader for the effort, said the investigators would work on methods for designing the chemical backbones that are the basis for molecules contained in a given molecular library.

A well-made library of molecules can contain anywhere from a few dozen compounds to millions, Aubé said. But only a tiny fraction of these have potential as drugs. Before the days of molecular libraries, a medicinal chemist might have come up with 100 molecules a year with drug potential—producing one at a time. Today, said Aubé, a technique called combinatorial chemistry is quickening the pace of molecule-building.

The bigger the library of molecules, the greater the chance of finding some with drug potential. The work at the KU center will help expand the libraries by hastening the discovery of new and novel molecules, Aubé said.