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Natural Selection, Inc. and Southwestern College Awarded U.S. Army Phase I STTR
La Jolla, CA – Natural Selection, Inc. (NSI) has been awarded a Phase I STTR from the U.S. Army entitled “High-throughput Direct Structural Screening for Drug Lead Compounds.” As part of the 6-month effort, Southwestern College (SWC) (Chula Vista, CA) will serve as the research institution. The Phase I effort focuses on the development of new research tools for rapid prescreening of drugs against resistant strains of malaria. It is estimated that one-third of the world’s population is at risk for malaria. According to the World Health Organization, about 300 million new cases of malaria were reported in 2000 and malaria accounted for 1.27 million deaths world-wide in 2002. Furthermore, some scientists predict a reemergence of the disease in North America and Europe due to an increase in cross resistance to anti-malarial drugs. Phase I of the U.S. Army STTR will focus on the development of automated, computer-based, screening tools that will allow researchers to rapidly prescreen for potential new drugs against malaria.
“There is an obvious and immediate need for greater exploration in the search for novel anti-malarial drugs,” said Dr. Gary Fogel, Vice President of NSI and Principal Investigator for this Phase I STTR. “The goal is to develop an innovative technology to accelerate high-throughput screening of potential new drugs against the parasite responsible for malaria. We look forward to working with personnel at Southwestern College to make this high-throughput technology a reality for anti-malarial research.”
At SWC, Chemistry Professor David Hecht will lead the effort for data preparation and analysis of the computational methods and results. “This is a very exciting opportunity at all levels, especially for our students who will be involved in some cutting-edge research,” said Hecht, who will be assisted by SWC Biology/Biotechnology student, Eric Pittman.
Phase I will last six months and with the objective of transitioning into Phase II, which will involve wet-lab experimental validation of the computer-generated predictions of anti-malarial drugs.
Natural Selection, Inc. was founded in 1993 to address complex problems in industry, medicine, and defense. The company possesses unique expertise and its research efforts support the discovery of new pharmaceuticals, the automated detection and diagnosis of breast cancer from film-screen mammograms, optical character recognition, and a variety of military and industrial projects.
Established in 1961, Southwestern College is one of 109 public community colleges in the state of California and is the only public institution of higher education located in the southern portion of San Diego County. Southwestern College employs more than 1,200 faculty and staff, and serves approximately 18,000 students.
For more information about Southwestern College, please contact:
Mr. José A. Alvarez
Marketing Communications Associate
Office of Community and Media Relations
Southwestern College
900 Otay Lakes Road
Chula Vista, CA 91910
tel: (619) 482-6304
fax: (619) 482-6484
jalvarez@swccd.edu
www.swccd.edu
For more information about Natural Selection, Inc., please contact:
Dr. Gary B. Fogel
Vice President
Natural Selection, Inc.
3333 N. Torrey Pines Ct.
Suite 200
La Jolla, CA, 92037
tel: (858) 455-6449
fax: (858) 455-1560
gfogel@natural-selection.com
and please visit our web site at http://www.natural-selection.com/.