Dr. George Garcia Receives New Grant for Drug Discovery Research
The Center for the Discovery of New Medicines has awarded its third round of grants, providing funding to eight projects from labs across U-M.
Dr. George Garcia, Professor and Chair of Medicinal Chemistry and Director of Interdepartmental Program in Medicinal Chemistry, has been selected as one of the eight recipients of project funding.
- Project Title: "Identification of Novel Inhibitors of MTB RNA Polymerase via HTS"
- Project Summary: High-throughput screening in the Center for Chemical Genomics to identify novel inhibitors of RNA polymerase from Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis, as potential leads for new drugs for drug-resistant TB.
Founded in 2012, the CDNM brings together U-M experts in all areas of the drug discovery enterprise — including medicinal chemists, structural biologists, pharmacologists and pharmaceutics and drug metabolism researchers — to support early-stage, innovative projects across the university.
Dr. Garcia notes that “This award will allow us to build upon our recent successes in targeting the tuberculosis RNA polymerase. Working with the CCG, we will be focusing on identifying novel inhibitors (“hits”) of what is arguably the most clinically important drug-resistant tuberculosis mutant. Subsequent work will validate and optimize the “hits” we get from the CCG screening. The CDNM and this award program are critical components of drug discovery research here at Michigan and we are so grateful for being selected."
