Stefan Balaz, PhD, Chair and Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences’ Vermont Campus, has been awarded a five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health in the amount of $1,350,000. Dr Balaz and his team will develop an approach that will model how chemicals are transported and accumulate in biological membranes, helping researchers predict how new drug candidates are likely to behave in the body.
The results of the research will be combined with modeling of protein binding and incorporated into software, tentatively called cell-QSAR. Once the software is available, researchers will need only sketch the drug’s structure to understand the rate at which it will be transported through the membranes of the body. The transport rate is critical to determining whether a drug will be distributed throughout the body or if it is more likely to remain close to the location where it was administered.
Allowing researchers to model how potential new drugs will act in the body will decrease the time-to-market for these drugs as well as the costs associated with research and development. One area where these factors are particularly critical is in the development of cancer drugs.
“Using this software, researchers will be able to predict the behavior of drugs, even before making a compound. For example, for a chemical that is to be injected close to a tumor, the software will indicate whether it will surround and fight the tumor or whether there are risks to other organs in the body,” said Dr. Balaz. “Our approach will be key to identifying the structure and properties responsible for a drug’s movement in the body and will propose how the molecules should be modified to achieve the desired distribution. This knowledge is extremely important in developing drugs that will effectively treat disease and minimize the adverse effects to the patient.”
Robert A. Hamilton, Pharm.D., Associate Dean and Chief Administrative Officer of ACPHS-Vermont added, “In addition to helping address Vermont’s existing pharmacist shortage, the College is committed to developing an advanced pharmaceutical and biomedical research program. The awarding of this NIH grant to Dr. Balaz is indicative of the research we will be conducting in Vermont. We look forward to announcements of future grants and awards.”
Prior to joining ACPHS-Vermont, Dr. Balaz was a member of the faculty at North Dakota State University for more than ten years, where he was twice named “Researcher of the Year.” His research results have been summarized in more than 140 papers and recognized with the prestigious Ebert Prize from the American Pharmacists Association. Dr. Balaz is an elected board member of the Cheminformatics and QSAR Society, serves on editorial boards of several journals and reviews grant applications for NIH and other agencies.
The project described was supported by Grant Number 1R01GM080508-01A2 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences. The content in solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences or the National Institutes of Health.
About Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
Founded in 1881, Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences is a private, independent institution committed to the advancement of health. The College has academic programs and research activities spanning the full spectrum of pharmacy and health sciences – from drug discovery to patient care. Nearly 1,600 ACPHS students are pursuing a wide range of career pathways in health related fields through degree programs in pharmacy, pharmaceutical sciences, biomedical technology and health and human sciences. The College’s main campus is located in Albany, New York; its satellite campus is in Colchester, Vermont. For more information, please visit www.acphs.edu.
Source: Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. Colchester, VT. – October 14, 2009 –