Principal Investigator: David Russell

Contact Information: E-mail: dgr8@cornell.edu - Phone: 607-253-3401
Sponsor: NIH-NIAID
Grant Number: 3 R01 AI080651-01A1S1
Title: ARRA Administrative Supplement:
Development of a Cell Based HTS for Compounds with Activity Against Tuberculosis
Annual Direct Cost: $95,900
Project Period: 09/01/09-08/31/10

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Tuberculosis remains a serious threat to mankind with approximately 1/3 of the world's population carrying the infectious disease. In the parent grant AI 080651 " The development of a cell-based HTS for compounds with activity against tuberculosis", we have developed readouts of bacterial fitness that enable us to screen for novel anti-tuberculosis drugs. This original grant supports development of assays to used in the HTS platform at Clifton Barry's lab at NIAID, NIH, which exploits the Chemical Genomics library at NIH.

In this application for an Administrative Supplement we are requesting additional support to augment our assay-development platform with a JANUS mini station for automated plate-handling and liquid transfer. This would expand our platform to enable us to perform additional high-throughput screening in our BSL3 laboratory in Ithaca. This expansion is now possible because we have entered into a collaboration with Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Cambridge, MA., to screen their compound libraries. This is an extraordinary opportunity to double our screening capacity and add a highly-skilled, and experienced industrial partner to our drug-development program. This request fulfills the expections of the ARRA funding for the following reasons.

  1. Perkin Elmer is a US company and the JANUS mini station is manufactured in Downer's Grove, IL.
  2. We are ready to purchase and use this equipment immediately.
  3. Vertex Pharmaceuticals is also a US company and this interaction has the potential to identify new targets against tuberculosis that would be developed by scientists at Vertex Pharmaceuticals.