News and Events

YourChoice Therapeutics, Inc., a pioneer of hormone-free family planning products, began dosing male volunteers in a phase one clinical study of YCT-529, a drug candidate designed to offer the first hormone-free male birth control pill. The initial preclinical studies, funded in part by the…

The laboratories of Dr. Gunda Georg and Dr. Daniel Harki collaborated on a recent publication in Nature Communications regarding the discovery of a new allosteric inhibitors that bind to CDK2.

Cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (CDK2), part of the enzyme family responsible for controlling…

High-throughput screening is a reliable method for discovering compounds that interact with novel therapeutic targets to improve human health. “Nuisance compounds” interfere with drug discovery by confounding screening results.

The Walters laboratory at the University of Minnesota (The…

Mycobacterium abscessus is an opportunistic pathogen that causes severe lung infections, particularly in patients with underlying lung disorders such as cystic fibrosis or chronic pulmonary disease and is intrinsically resistant to most antibiotics. The high pH in the airway lumen environment…

The results of Phase 2 clinical trials for glaucoma drug QLS-101 have demonstrated a favorable safety and tolerability profile, according to a news release by Qlaris Bio, which licensed the drug in 2019. A positive efficacy signal was also reported. Read the full story on the …

The Journal of Medicinal Chemistry has published a Virtual Issue highlighting the accomplishments of Co-Editors in Chief Gunda Georg and Shaomeng Wang as well as an …

The Institute for Therapeutics Discovery and Development (ITDD) has been awarded a new NIH contract entitled "Support for NCATS Medicinal Chemistry for Lead Optimization". The objective of this contract is to support the NIH National Center for Advanced Translational Sciences (NCATS) drug…

Gunda Georg, PhD, has been appointed a Regents Professor of the University of Minnesota. The Regents Professorship is the highest honor the University bestows on its faculty. It recognizes faculty who have made exceptional contributions to the University through teaching, research, scholarship,…

Gunda Georg is featured in the WCCO-TV story, "'U' Chemists Close To Making Male Birth Control Pill A Reality…

Gunda Georg was featured in several stories on her work to develop a male birth control pill, including …

Gunda Georg was featured in a KARE-11 story and in …

Gunda Georg and Shameem Syeda were featured on the front page of the Star Tribune Science…

Gunda Georg's research was featured in ACS in the News: Potential Male Birth Control Pill has Deadly Origins.  Click here to read more.

Gunda Georg is featured in several stories for her research to develop a birth control pill for men that has its origin in an arrow poison. Newsweek, …

Gunda Georg is the PI of a $8.3M NIH U54 Center Grant for the project, "Contraceptive Discovery, Development, and Behavioral Research Center (2017-2021)." Other College of Pharmacy researchers involved are Leigh Allen, Jon Hawkinson, Michael Walters and Henry Wong. The center also involves an…

Male contraception gaining sex appeal, Gustavus survey finds.  Read more in the Star Tribune.  

Gunda Georg and her research on developing a male birth control pill are featured in the CNN Series, "This is Sex with Lisa Ling." 

Using precision medicine study individual resistance to ER+ breast cancer inhibitors 
Researchers: Michael Walters, University of Minnesota; Dr. Liewei Wang, Mayo Clinic
 
Why do some women with estrogen receptor positive (ER+) breast cancer respond to the use…

Kathryn Nelson, a principal scientist with ITDD, is quoted in the Washington…

Natalia Tretyakova received a $342,947 NIH grant for her project, "DNA Cross-Linking By Diepoxybutane."

Dr. Georg was selected as a STEM Research Exemplar.  The Research Exemplar Project aims to identify the practices that exemplars use to lead and manage their research labs with professionalism and integrity.  Read more

Vadim Gurvich and Gunda Georg are authors of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry's Highly Read Article of 2015, "Phosphonooxymethyl Prodrug of Triptolide: Synthesis, Physicochemical…

Vadim Gurvich received funding for his project, "Support for NCATS Drug Substance Development and Manufacture."

Gunda Georg and ITDD are featured in the Inquiry story, "Bringing new drug therapies to life…

Dr. Peter Dosa has received a $190,625 NIH award for his project, "A pharmacological screen for inactivating antagonists."

The University of Minnesota will join a team of academic institutions, private companies, governmental entities and non-profit organizations across the U.S. as a partner for the newly established …

Jon Hawkinson, director of the ITDD High-throughput Screening Laboratory, received a $343,887 NIH shared instrumentation award for the plasmon resonance (SPR) instrument, which will allow researchers at the U of M to directly determine the affinity ofantibodies and small molecule probes and…

Vadim Gurvich, ITDD Associate Director, received $68,400 for his part of an R01 project, "Toward a Mechanism-Based Approach to Treating Atrial Fibrillation."

Dr. Gurvich will provide chemistry support to collaborators at Vanderbilt conducting pre-clinical and clinical studies.

The College of Pharmacy's 2014 annual report highlights associate program director Peter Dosa's research in "The Quest to Halt Vision Loss…

On June 9, the Masonic Cancer Center will present a special seminar featuring Vadim Gurvich, Institute for Therapeutics Discovery & Development associate director, and Charles Muscoplat, professor of Food Science & Nutrition, who were recently awarded $3 million by the National…

The University of Minnesota has been selected by the National Institutes of Health as one of three Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hub (REACH) sites nationally to establish a university-wide strategic framework promoting commercialization and technology transfer in the life sciences…

Michael Walters, ITDD Lead and Probe Discovery Core Director, received an $800,000 grant from the Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics for the project "Development of Safer Soluble Guanylate Cyclase (sGC) Activators to Treat Aortic Valve Calcification." Co-PI is Jordan…

Chemistry: Chemical Con Artists Foil Drug Discovery, a commentary co-authored by Mike Walters, ITDD Lead and Probe Discovery Core Director, was published in Nature on September 24…

Vadim Gurvich, ITDD Chemical Process Development Core Director, received a National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Centers for Advanced Diagnostics and Experimental Therapeutics in Lung Diseases Stage II (CADET II) award for his project, "Preclinical Development of Myosolvins, a New Class of…

Two Institute for Therapeutics Discovery & Development faculty have received Academic Health Center Faculty Research Development Grants for 2014-15. Lead and Probe Discovery Core director Mike Walters was awarded $175,000 for "Treatment of Tauopathies," and Medicinal Chemistry Core associate…

Rebecca Cuellar, ITDD research assistant professor, was awarded the Distinguished Poster Award for Senior Researcher at the Mayo Clinic Young Investigators' Research Symposium held in Rochester March 22-23, 2014. She presented "Design, Synthesis, and In Vitro and In Vivo Evaluation of Retinoic…

Department head and ITDD director Gunda Georg was awarded the 2014 Kenneth E. Avis Distinguished Visiting Professorship in Pharmaceutical Sciences, an annual honor bestowed by the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, College of Pharmacy, University of Tennessee Health Science Center. The Avis…

In fall 2013, Institute for Therapeutics Discovery & Development faculty were awarded an $8.3 million contract from the National Institutes of Health's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to investigate pharmaceutical alternatives to…

The University of Minnesota's Academic Health Center has named Gunda Georg, Ph.D., a 2013 inductee into its Academy for Excellence in Health Research. Each year, the Academies for Excellence recognize outstanding faculty in the areas of scientific research or educational scholarship.

Dr…

In July 2012, the National Institute for Pharmaceutical Technology and Education (NIPTE) signed a contract with SAIC-Frederick, Inc. in support of the National Institutes of Health’s Therapeutics for Rare and Neglected Diseases (TRND).

TRND is a translational program housed in the NIH’s…