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Principal Investigator: Thierry Diagana
Organization: UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS MED BR GALVESTON
Fiscal Year: 2022
Award: $56,163,625
Funding agency: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
OVERALL – ABSTRACT
Pandemic prevention and preparedness is a major scientific and societal priority that requires sustained and
forward looking investments across governmental, non-governmental, academic and private sectors to develop
an arsenal of countermeasures against the existential threat of viral pandemics. Combining world-leading
BSL3/4 capabilities at University of Texas of Medical Branch (UTMB) and state-of-the art drug discovery
technologies at Novartis, the UTMB Novartis Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness (UNAPP), is a unique
and innovative partnership that brings together the multi-disciplinary expertise required to deliver high quality
antiviral drug candidates. Enabled by world-leading virologists and seasoned drug hunters, UNAPP will
aggressively prosecute a portfolio of 5 projects aiming to discover orally available, safe, and effective drugs
against coronaviruses, flavivirus and henipavirus, three major classes of viruses with pandemic
potential. The projects portfolio combines approaches targeting well validated drug targets, such as the RNA-
dependent RNA polymerases and viral proteases, as well as phenotypic screening, which will allow for the
discovery of clinical drug candidates and novel targets that will advance our fundamental understanding of the
biology of those viruses. Four scientific Cores—Virology, High-Throughput Biology, Drug Discovery and
Translational Research Cores—will provide technological and scientific expertise to support Project Teams and
implement the scientific strategy toward novel antiviral drugs. The UNAPP will be governed by an Administrative
Core which will be co-led by the PIs, Dr. Pei-Yong Shi and Dr. Thierry Diagana, who have a long track-record of
successfully working together. Both PIs have led multiple productive collaborations focused on translational
impact and combining public, private and non-governmental organizations. The Administrative Core will provide
integrated decision making in scientific, operational, financial, intellectual property protection, and
communication. In collaboration with all project and Core leaders, as well as with external input from a Scientific
Advisory Board and NIH program officers, they will ensure that the projects portfolio leverages the full spectrum
of technologies and capabilities residing in all four scientific Cores, capturing synergies across projects through
cross-learning and efficient deployment of platforms relevant to multiple viruses. Because of the unique
complementarity of the scientific Cores and the remarkable synergies of the project portfolio, we fully expect that
the UNAPP will yield exceptional productivity and deliver all the proposed objectives: (1) Deliver 3 IND-ready
candidates and 3 Development Candidates, (2) advance antiviral research, and (3) train next-generation
drug hunters.
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