NSF Grant Supports Groundbreaking Research in Pharmaceutical Drug Discoveries at University of Kansas

A $575,000 grant from the National Science Foundation will support research in the Boskovic Lab at the University of Kansas School of Pharmacy, led by assistant professor Zarko Boskovic. The funding will enable the team to investigate the process of creating new molecules that hold potential for drug discovery using photochemistry. By exposing molecules to light, researchers aim to selectively infuse them with energy, enabling them to reorganize and rearrange themselves, thereby creating diverse new chemical compounds.

Key Takeaways:

• The NSF grant will support research in the Boskovic Lab to shed light on the process of efficiently and selectively creating new molecules for drug discovery.
• Researchers will use photochemistry to create diverse new chemical compounds, which can be used to develop new bioactive molecules for drug therapy.
• The grant will enable the team to catalog and reintroduce thousands of compounds that have been in storage for years, providing a valuable resource for researchers.
• The study aims to explore how new compounds will affect the central nervous system and how they covalently react with proteins that cancer cells depend on to multiply.
• The grant also focuses on teaching computational literacy to both graduate and undergraduate students, enabling them to understand the fundamentals and math behind data-driven chemistry.
• The project will involve using LED lights with different filters to control wavelengths of light, exposing the molecules to cells through cell painting, and recording observations and reactions.
• The researchers will use some of the compounds for testing its methods and share them with other researchers.

Statistics:

• $575,000: The amount of the NSF grant awarded to the Boskovic Lab.
• 100 years: The age of some of the pharmaceutical samples that the researchers will study and catalog.
• 20,000: The number of compounds that Boskovic's team estimates are available in storage at the University.
• 5: The number of years that scientists have been observing the effects of light on molecules.

Sources:

• University of Kansas: "NSF grant will support new research for pharmaceutical drug discoveries." September 18.
• National Science Foundation (NSF)
• The late KU professor Gary Grunewald and his mentor Howard Zimmerman at Wisconsin
• American public