BioCentury
ARTICLE | Targets & Mechanisms

Hitting for the cycle

Diversity-oriented chemistry expands the malaria drug universe

September 29, 2016 7:00 AM UTC

Driven by the need for antimalarial drugs that hit all stages of the life cycle of the malaria parasite, a group at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard has constructed and screened a diverse library of molecules based on 3-D motifs found in natural compounds, and identified a lead molecule that represents a new scaffold against a new target in the disease.

The compound, BRD7929, produced single-dose cures in mice and was described this month in Naturein a study ledby Stuart Schreiber, a founding member of the Broad Institute. Schreiber was also a founder of several biotech companies, including Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc., Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Infinity Pharmaceuticals Inc. ...