Drug Discovery

Our search for better therapeutic drugs is driven by the imperative that two out of every seven Australians will be diagnosed with cancer. We work towards understanding the mechanism of action of new drugs at a molecular level, with particular reference to the molecular characteristics that enable selective targeting.

Our research involves integrating biological results with a molecular level understanding of the mechanisms of action to enable the design of even better drugs.

Drug Discovery Research Focus

We focus on understanding the effects of structural changes on drug activity, cellular uptake, and accumulation characteristics through biological media and small molecule aggregation. This research theme brings together researchers with complementary skills. Our innovative approach uses a combination of chemical and molecular biology techniques to determine the molecular targets of these active drugs, to enable intelligent design of the next generation drugs to improve their efficacy and selectivity.

Facilities

This research theme is supported by access to world class spectroscopic instrumentation including the Biomedical Magnetic Resonance Facility (one of the University’s premier research facilities), the Confocal Bio-Imaging Facility, Biophysics facility which includes Jasco J-810 circular and linear dichroism spectrometer, an Applied Biosystems protein synthesiser, dedicated HPLC, fluorescence spectrometer and supercomputer facilities for modelling and binding studies calculations. Some of our research is conducted collaboratively with institutions and research centres both in Australia and internationally (e.g., UK, France, USA), and is funded by a range of grant funding agencies in Australia and overseas.

Current and recent research includes:

• Developing new antibacterial agents
• The design and synthesis of chiral lanthanide complexes for cellular applications
• Development of platinum(II) anticancer drugs (e.g., 56MESS)
• Design of new compounds for transmembrane transport
• Determination of the spectrum of activity of our drugs against cancer cell lines and bacteria
• Identification of molecular drug targets
• Development of new methods of analysis to assist in
• Use of biological data integrated with spectroscopic and structural data to guide future drug design strategies
• Design and synthesis of fluorescent and fluorescently tagged drugs to visualise localisation of drugs in cells

Contact for Drug Discovery Research

Professor Janice Aldrich-Wright - J.Aldrich-Wright@uws.edu.au