Newsroom
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. — RTI International, an independent, nonprofit research institute dedicated to improving the human condition, has secured contract 75N93021C00002 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), focused on creating discrete collections of chemical compounds called “libraries” tailored to different antibacterial drug discovery approaches, particularly those targeting Gram-negative bacteria. The availability of compounds and natural products with properties appropriate for Gram-negative cell penetration has been limited and the lack of novel chemical classes targeting Gram-negative bacteria has been recognized by the community as one of the key problems with antibiotic discovery.
RTI chemists in the new Chemistry Center for Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria (CC4CARB) will synthesize and deliver rationally designed compound libraries to the scientific community. When combined, these libraries will represent a large collection of Gram-negative related chemical matter, which will be made available to the entire antimicrobial research community for use in larger efforts.
Chemical scaffold ideas will be solicited from the scientific community for inclusion into the program. A peer-review process will determine CC4CARB program fit and synthetic feasibility of each scaffold proposal. Once a scaffold is approved, CC4CARB will design and synthesize libraries for inclusion into the collection, focused on properties suitable for Gram-negative cell penetration. Compounds will be formatted onto 96-well and 384-well plates (as well as other formats) and shipped as requested to researchers upon approval by NIAID.
Scaffold proposal submissions and compound requests can be made through the CC4CARB website. Requests for additional information about the program can be made by contacting CC4CARB@rti.org.
