Dr. Ming Luo and Dr. Binghe Wang are partnering with the University of Minnesota, other institutions, and other researchers at Georgia State University to establish a new Midwest Antiviral Drug Discovery (AViDD) Center. They have been awarded more than $6 million in grant funding to conduct antiviral therapeutic development, medicinal chemistry and drug design work to build a pipeline of antiviral drugs targeting SARS-CoV-2 and other viruses.
The funding is part of a plan by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which is part of the National Institutes of Health, to establish nine centers nationwide. The overall effort is worth approximately $577 million, and $66 million has been awarded to the Midwest AViDD Center.
This new center, led by the University of Minnesota Institute on Infectious Diseases, will bring together researchers from across the country. Georgia State scientists will serve as project leaders over two of the center’s five projects.
Dr. Ming Luo will lead a project to focus on antiviral inhibitors to block virus entry into the host cell during infection. Dr. Binghe Wang will lead a sub-contract as part of the Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Metabolism and Pharmacokinetics (DMPK) Core for the center.
This center is being launched conjointly with the groundbreaking, new alliance between researchers at Emory University and Georgia State to establish a new $52 million antiviral drug discovery center in Atlanta.
Funding for this grant is provided by NIAID Grant Number: 1U19AI171954 – 01. The awards are a part of the Antiviral Program for Pandemics (APP), an intensive research program designed to speed development of therapeutics for COVID-19. APP is led by NIAID, the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) and the Office of Research Infrastructure Programs, all part of NIH; and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of HHS.
For more information, please read here: https://news.gsu.edu/2022/05/26/georgia-state-researchers-awarded-more-than-6-million-to-fight-emerging-diseases-with-midwest-antiviral-drug-discovery-center/