MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY LED DISCOVERY OF NEW TREATMENTS FOR HUMAN AFRICAN TRYPANOSOMIASIS AND BETA-THALASSEMIA
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$636,524.00
Summary
I am a medicinal chemist interested in finding new treatments for sleeping sickness, a parasitic disease, and the blood diseases sickle cell anaemia and beta-thalassemia. After testing more than 80,000 compounds, we have discovered some promising starting points for drug discovery. These so-called “screening hits” are too weak to be useful but I hope to use my medicinal chemistry expertise to make these more potent, more selective, and hence therapeutically useful.
Discovery Of Active Metabolic Pathways Suitable For Drug Targeting In Trypanosoma Brucei
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$485,517.00
Summary
Sleeping Sickness is a parasitic disease affecting many of the world’s poorest countries, and is fatal if left untreated. The aim of this project is to identify new metabolic pathways in the parasite that causes Sleeping Sickness, and to investigate how drugs interfere with parasite metabolism. This will provide the basis for new drug discovery efforts and facilitate the development of new medicines for Sleeping Sickness.
Discovery Of Single Agents To Treat Chagas Disease And Human African Trypanosomiasis
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$527,189.00
Summary
In this project we aim to discover new drugs to treat Chagas disease and human African trypanosomiasis. These debilitating parasitic diseases are neglected by pharmaceutical companies and afflict millions of impoverished people worldwide. We aim to be able to treat both diseases with a single agent
Enhancing Anti-parasitic Drug Discovery With Metabolomics
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$483,402.00
Summary
Tropical diseases, such as malaria, infect millions of people each year, and drug resistance is emerging to current treatments. This research will improve our understanding of how current medicines work, and importantly, identify ways in which potential new drugs can kill malaria parasites.
Parasitic infections are a significant global health problem, resulting in more than a million deaths annually. Unfortunately there is no licensed vaccine available for any human parasitic infection, and in many cases current drugs suffer from issues of parasite drug resistance. To address this problem this project brings together leading researchers from the European Union, Brazil, and Australia to discover and develop new types of drugs for four major human parasitic diseases: schistosomiasis, ....Parasitic infections are a significant global health problem, resulting in more than a million deaths annually. Unfortunately there is no licensed vaccine available for any human parasitic infection, and in many cases current drugs suffer from issues of parasite drug resistance. To address this problem this project brings together leading researchers from the European Union, Brazil, and Australia to discover and develop new types of drugs for four major human parasitic diseases: schistosomiasis, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease and malaria.Read moreRead less
Investigating The Therapeutic Potential Of FTY720 For Human African Trypanosomiasis
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$653,736.00
Summary
FTY720, is a drug currently used to treat multiple sclerosis, which we have shown is also be able to kill the parasite responsible for African sleeping sickness, Trypanosomes. We aim to identify the target the drug acts on in the parasite to have its affect. Our objective is to improve the activity further by chemical modification to produce a potent, orally available and well characterised, non-toxic drug suitable for preclinical development.
Discovery Of New And Better Treatments For Human African Trypanosomiasis
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$837,615.00
Summary
Sleeping sickness, or human African trypanosomiasis, is present in 36 countries where there are 60 million people at risk of infection, with 50,000-70,000 new cases and 48,000 deaths per annum. Transmitted by the bite of the tsetse fly, this disease is caused by the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma brucei, and without treatment, death is inevitable. We have discovered some compounds that weakly inhibit T.brucei and the aim of this project is to make them potent enough to become drug candidates.