NIH Funds Chemical Probe Work

NIH will fund a network of nine centers aimed at producing more small-molecule probes to explore new targets for a range of therapies. About $70 million annually will go to the Molecular Libraries Probe Production Center Network over the next four years to support high-tech screening methods needed to sort through small-molecule libraries. The network is part of the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research. "This network marks a new era in academic and government research as NIH-funded scientists will have access to the tools for rapidly screening hundreds of thousands of small molecules against many novel biological assays at lower costs than previously possible," NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni said in a statement. The nine centers include two chemistry centers, at the University of Kansas and Vanderbilt University, and three screening centers, at Johns Hopkins University, Southern Research Institute, and the University of New Mexico. The remaining four will be comprehensive centers at NIH, Burnham Institute for Medical Research, Broad Institute, and Scripps Research Institute.