Drug discovery in the fight against Malaria

• Grant number: 20/10494-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: January 01, 2021
• End date: December 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Chemistry - Organic Chemistry
• Principal Investigator: Luiz Carlos Dias
• Grantee: Mariana Ferrer Casal
• Host Institution: Instituto de Química (IQ). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Company: Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Instituto de Química (IQ)
• Associated research grant: 15/50655-9 - FAPESP/MMV/DNDi/UNICAMP/USP Consortium to discover new drugs for the treatment of tropical parasitic diseases, AP.PITE

Abstract

This post-doc will work in collaboration with expert scientists from the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV, www.mmv.org) and have access to a very well organized framework providing an integrated approach to modern drug discovery. The overall goal with MMV is to deliver a clinical candidate to treat Malaria, as defined by the criteria for an MMV Preclinical candidate. Such a compound should have the potential to be developed, in combination, to deliver a Single Exposure Radical Cure and Prophylaxis or single exposure chemoprotection drug. A clinical candidate broadly speaking needs to have potency against relevant parasites, a low propensity to generate resistance, have oral efficacy in rodent models, good developability, a good safety profile and low cost of goods. MMV will provide the project with quality lead molecules, aligned to a particular Target Product Profile (TPP) of interest. The post-doc will investigate structure-activity relationships in these series in order to further optimize them and deliver drug candidates, as well as to aim to elucidate novel mechanisms of action. (AU)