Vanderbilt University has long been a world leader in pharmacology research, and is ideally positioned to lead drug discovery efforts through expanded partnerships with the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. Vanderbilt possesses the major infrastructure needed for drug discovery including high throughput screening (HTS), medicinal chemistry, molecular pharmacology, drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics (DMPK), in vivo/behavioral capabilities, and an extensive early through late phase human testing environment.
Vanderbilt’s drug discovery assets have been centers for both the NIHs Molecular Libraries Probe Production Network and Molecular Libraries Screening Centers Network. Vanderbilt has contributed more than 32 probes through those NIH programs, many of which continued into full drug discovery programs at Vanderbilt and other institutions. Their leadership in helping to deliver tool compounds to the research community which has helped further define the utility of drug targets.