To spur research on severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) has initiated a free distribution program for a "SARS chip"-a microarray to enable rapid detection of genetic variations among different SARS coronavirus strains. The program is the result of an alliance of government, not-for-profit, and industry partners.

NIAID purchased several hundred of the GeneChip brand SARS Array, made by Affymetrix, and is distributing them at no cost to qualified researchers worldwide. Distribution will be coordinated by the NIAID's Pathogen Functional Genomics Resource Center (PFGRC). The PFGRC is operated by the Institute for Genomic Research under a contract from NIAID. Any researcher can request the SARS array by completing a simple Web-based application process.

The new array was designed using data from research centers in the United States, Canada, and Asia that sequenced the complete genome of the SARS coronavirus, and comprises the virus' 29,700 DNA base pairs. The microarray will help scientists achieve a number of objectives, according to NIAID:

• By comparing the genomes of different SARS virus isolates and then using genetic relatedness to group them into subtypes, researchers can construct a "family tree" of the SARS coronaviruses.



• By comparing clinical outcomes among individuals infected with different SARS virus subtypes, researchers can determine which strains are most dangerous and gain key information for the development of targeted antiviral drugs.



• Over time, epidemiologists can trace how the virus evolves as it spreads to different populations in different geographic locales.

Details on the application procedure are posted on the NIAID web site at : www.niaid.nih.gov/dmid/genomes/pfgrc.

New Initiative to Research & Develop Drugs for Neglected Diseases

In a unique initiative, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the Nobel Prize-winning organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), and four public research institutes from around the world have joined forces to address the lack of research and development in drugs for neglected diseases. The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) will work in close collaboration with the WHO/TDR Tropical Disease Research program.

According to WHO, only 10% of global health research is devoted to diseases—e.g., malaria, tuberculosis, leprosy, leishmaniasis (kala azar), human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness), Chagas disease—that account for 90% of the global disease burden that affects impoverished patients in developing countries.

These neglected patients “desperately” need new, affordable, accessible, and effective drugs, but their diseases do not represent a market profitable enough to attract research and development, say WHO officials. Investment in drugs for neglected diseases constitutes a “mere trickle” compared with the large amount invested in R&D for possible blockbuster drugs for such diseases as cancer and hypertension, or lifestyle disorders such as impotence, obesity, and baldness.

They also intend to harness new technology to research and develop appropriate health tools using a not-for-profit collaborative model of drug development, highlighting the importance of promoting public responsibility in providing equitable access to these drugs (see the item on Chemical Diversity Labs, below).

For more information, contact Samantha Bolton, WHO/TDR: tel +41 79 239 23 66 or 011 243 63 030 Room 445 (Delhi) or e-mail boltons@who.int; or Jaya Banerji, DNDi: tel: +41 79 210 93 78 or 011 274 79 181 (Delhi) or e-mail jaya.banerji@geneva.msf.org. Also see www.accessmed-msf.org/dndi.asp.

Chemical Diversity Labs Collaborates with World Health Organization on Discovery of Anti-parasitic Drugs

Chemical Diversity Labs (CDL) recently reached a pre-clinical milestone in its collaboration with the World Health Organization’s Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (WHO/TDR) on the discovery of novel therapeutics for the treatment of certain parasitic diseases (also see item on DNDi, above). Under the agreement, CDL provides its focused compound library and chemoinformatics expertise to the WHO/TDR research program aimed at identifying novel small-molecule compounds with potential to be developed into new drugs for parasitic diseases.

Of the 10,000 compounds screened so far by WHO collaborators, 46 compounds—representing a 0.5% hit rate—were identified to have anti-parasitic activity, according to CDL officials. WHO/TDR is free to pursue these compounds for the discovery and development of new drugs. The most promising compounds are being entered into more detailed follow-up research.

Dr. Ilya Okun, CDL Vice President of Research and Development, commented that the company is pleased to participate in this humanitarian undertaking. “We are excited to be part of this project, and contribute to the world by providing our support in drug discovery and development to cure diseases predominant in the developing world, which are often not a focus of the major pharmaceutical giants. Thanks to our chemoinformatics tools, we can narrow down a vast chemistry space to an easily manageable size. This enables us to perform high-probability drug discovery with limited resources, an important consideration for non-profit organizations like WHO.”

For more information, contact Dr. Nikolay Savchuk, VP, Marketing and Sales, Chemical Diversity Labs:
Pone: +1 (858) 794-4860
e-mail ns@chemdiv.com.