SGC malaria program leads to SDDC: Gates grant announcement

Yesterday an announcement was made that the Structure-Guided Drug Discovery Coalition (SDDC) was awarded additional funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) to support their fantastic efforts in neglected disease drug discovery.  The SDDC has been a tremendous open collaboration among a large number of friends and colleagues – all of whom are donating their time and funding to the coalition.  From the outstanding and engaged scientific advisors, to the chemistry whiz team of Dave Matthews and David Floyd, to our project managers at the BMGF and the scientists around the world, it’s been awesomely fun and productive.

Special thanks to the funders whose resources and foundational support made the creation of the coalition possible.  These include the NIH (NIGMS and NIAID) and the various funders of the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC), who have quietly provided a decade of funding for the SGC’s “malaria” program coordinated by Raymond Hui; our current funders: the Government of Ontario’s Ministry for Research and Innovation, Genome Canada, the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, the Wellcome Trust, AbbVie, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Eli Lilly, GSK, Janssen, Novartis, Pfizer, and Takeda, and former funders: MSD and the Canadian Institutes for Health Research.

And of course hats off to Chris Walpole and Amy Wernimont based at SGC Toronto for their leadership of the coalition.

-Aled Edwards, SGC Director