Veterinary Center Receives Funding for NIH Drug Screening Research

STILLWATER, OK - 9/22/06 - The Center for Veterinary Health Sciences at Oklahoma State University was awarded an additional $2.99 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in connection with the veterinary center's current NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases seven-year contract. This funding, along with a recently awarded $220,724 for renovation costs, brings the total contract to $5.1 million.

The contract is for drug screening of various compounds to determine which drugs can be used to combat bioterrorism and emerging infectious disease agents. The veterinary center is one of five institutes involved in the in vitro screening part of the national program.

"What's nice about this piece of the project is that up until now, we have been concentrating mostly on testing potential bioterrorism agents," says Dr. William Barrow, professor and Sitlington Chair in Infectious Diseases in the veterinary center's Pathobiology Department. "This additional funding will allow us to move into the emerging infectious diseases arena to determine which compounds are effective against drug-resistant strains of bacteria such as staphylococci and enterococci. This will help pharmaceutical companies focus on what new drugs must be developed to protect humans from these diseases, which left untreated or uncontrolled, could be detrimental to our population."

According to Barrow, the funding also makes it possible to access and screen a library of 10,000 compounds. These compounds are described as drug-like, chemically diverse and well-suited for researchers who are looking for high-quality screening compounds. The collection will complement the veterinary center's existing screening collections, the university reports.