# Core B: Antiviral Drug Discovery and Development

> **NIH NIH U19** · UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA · 2022 · $7,237,749

## Abstract

Core B – Antiviral Drug Discovery and Development
ABSTRACT
The Midwest AViDD center is comprised of multidisciplinary teams supported by highly integrated cores to
identify and develop orally available drugs to address the immediate threat of Severe Acute Respiratory
Syndrome CoV-2 (SARS2), as well as provide antiviral drug candidates targeting viruses with the potential for
pandemics. Core-B is the entry portal into the drug development pipeline, serving as the screening core for the
initial discovery of bioactive chemical matter that provides the basis for early antiviral drug discovery and its
development.
 To establish a comprehensive screening program within Core-B, a multidisciplinary approach will be employed
to facilitate parallel small molecule screening efforts using traditional ultra-High Throughput Screening (uHTS)
at Scripps Research-Florida (SRMSC) under Dr. Scampavia; DNA-Encoded Chemistry Technology (DEC-Tec)
at the Baylor School of Medicine under Dr. Young; and Computational in silico Virtual Screening (VS) under
investigators Dr. Head-Gordon (UC Berkeley) and Dr. Amaro (UCSD). This Core-B program is unique in its
approach having integrated traditional pharmaceutical HTS and Virtual Screening (VS) methods with emerging
Computational and DNA-enable library screening methods to provide a cost-effective and comprehensive means
of exploration into novel chemical space for drug leads. It is envisioned that the three screening components to
Core B (uHTS, DEC-Tec, Computational/VS) will identify lead series through iterative cycles of evaluation and
refinement using their respective state-of-the-art screening technologies, structure-based design, and with
refinement made possible with medicinal chemistry SAR guidance (Core-C).
 Core-B duties will also provide integrated compound management services, where SRMSC will serve as the
central repository of acquired chemical lead matter derived from its Core-B investigators and Core-C medicinal
chemistry efforts. Compound management will include database registration of chemical matter into Core-A
cloud-based CDDVault and support for the integration of cheminformatic and bioinformatic data. Compound
management will provide storage, chemical formatting, and allocation of chemical leads to support ongoing
projects and Cores.
 The discovery of antiviral candidates requires effective and integrated collaborations leveraging the highly
experienced expertise of core-B investigators to enable the identification and triage of validated hit series and
support their optimization through Cores C-D and project investigators into promising antiviral drug leads suitable
for DMPK and in vivo animal studies.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10522806
- **Project number:** 1U19AI171954-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
- **Principal Investigator:** Louis Daniel Scampavia
- **Activity code:** U19 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $7,237,749
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-05-16 → 2026-10-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10522806

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10522806, Core B: Antiviral Drug Discovery and Development (1U19AI171954-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10522806. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*