The NIH Roadmap (http://nihroadmap.nih.gov), a massive undertaking by the National Institutes of Health that began with a series of meetings initiated in 2002 by NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, MD, now has form and meaning for the biomedical research community. Of particular interest to SBS members are the Molecular Libraries and Imaging initiatives now underway (www.mli.nih.gov). These initiatives are offering the academic and non-profit sectors unprecedented access to the latest assay and screening technologies, as well as opportunities for significant synergies among government, academic, and industry drug-discovery stakeholders.

Because of the importance and evolving nature of these new initiatives, in the spring of 2005, SBS made a commitment to NIH to help communicate information about relevant RFAs, funding opportunities, new databases, and other resources for the chemical genomics and drug-discovery communities. Since then, SBS News has provided ongoing coverage of the centers involved in the Molecular Libraries Screening Center Networks. Click here for SBS/NIH Connections coverage.