Center for Drug Discovery Innovation Established

Thomas Hermann, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Michael K Gilson, Professor and Chair in Computer-Aided Drug Design at the Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, will serve as the founding co-Directors of the newly-established Center for Drug Discovery Innovation. The cDDI will foster innovation by stimulating exciting new approaches to the challenges of drug discovery within an academic research environment. It will be a resource assisting UCSD faculty engaged in drug discovery projects anywhere on campus. Research outputs will include advanced computational design methods and systems pharmacology tools and databases; drug delivery platforms; pharmacogenomic insights and integration of clinical and drug-related databases; crystal structures of therapeutically relevant macromolecules; novel drug targets and assay technologies; and bioactive compounds for use as probes, development leads and candidate drugs.