Discovery of Chemical Probes and Therapeutic Leads, Phase 3, Synth Core

Project Summary We propose a Phase III COBRE to continue and sustain our work to discover new chemical probes and lead molecules for biological research and therapeutic discovery. The goal of the Synthesis and Discovery core (SD core) is to bring custom organic synthesis service, synthetic training and biological testing and design capability to the UD scientific community. We describe a plan for Development of the SD-Core through a sustainable model. In Phase III, the Custom Synthesis Lab (CSL) will continue to provide a broad array of synthetic services including small molecule synthesis, purification, scale up, chemical assay development and analog synthesis to the UD scientific community. The CSL also supports training for graduate students through core microinternship experiences that support their Ph.D. research and provides opportunities for undergraduates to participate and advance the goals of the core. The SD core will also continue to support shared cell culture facilities and a shared computational cluster that facilitates highly parallel molecular dynamics for protein calculations as well as DFT and ab initio calculations for research in synthetic and inorganic chemistry. The SD-Core has a strong user base with 100 users across 31 research groups, including 19 groups who have benefited from the CSL. We propose plans for continuing to grow the core, especially through expansion of the CSL during Phase III. We also describe a sustainable business plan for the core during Phase III and the period beyond COBRE funding. Plans for applying to use the CSL lab and core instruments are outlined, as are plans for prioritizing and completing core projects. Continuing our past practice, we propose to sustain the core through instrumentation proposals to update our equipment and scientific infrastructure. The support of hard-funded core scientific staff across our two cores provides the human infrastructure required for successful instrumentation proposals and the overall foundation needed for long-term sustainability of our center.