General Competition (November 1994)

Molecular Recognition Technology for Precise Design of Protein-Specific Drugs

Sponsor: CuraGen Corporation

• Project Performance Period: 3/1/1995 - 2/28/1998
• Total project (est.): $5,286,000.00
• Requested ATP funds: $2,379,000.00

CuraGen Corporation and American Cyanamid Company jointly propose to develop a generic molecular technology for developing therapeutic agents for treating cancer, cardiovascular disease, and other major ailments. Many of these diseases result from aberrant interactions between specific protein molecules. The strategy here has two tiers. The first is to identify short protein segments, called peptides, that interfere, block, or otherwise inactivate the problematic protein-protein interactions. The heart of the approach will be to create enormous combinatorial libraries of peptides (by mixing and matching the 20 kinds of protein building blocks otherwise known as amino acids), and then to identify those peptides in these libraries that bind to the disease-related proteins. Peptides generally are poorly suited for direct therapeutic use. Therefore, unique computational and structural analysis techniques are next used to determine the salient chemical and physical features of the selected peptides that contribute to their ability to bind to the disease-related proteins. The principles learned from that exercise then will serve as technical guidelines for designing non-peptide counterparts that are administered more readily as drugs and that harbor the same biomedical functions as the peptides that served as their models.

For project information:

Gregory T. Went, (203) 481-1104
gwent@curagen.com

Active Project Participants

• Wyeth Research (formerly Wyeth-Ayerst Research, American Home Products (Pearl River, NY)
  [Original, Active Member]
  

ATP Project Manager

Thomas Wiggins, (301) 975-5416
thomas.wiggins@nist.gov