The Center for Innovative Drug Discovery

provides capabilities and core services to support biomedical research related to drug discovery.

CIDD Medicinal chemists synthesize novel small molecules targeted for multiple therapeutic areas

Dr. Matthew Hart, Director of the CIDD High-Throughput Screening Facility, and Blair Richter working on the High-Content Imaging System at HTSF. The robotic arm (in the background) delivers a 384-well assay plate into the Operetta imaging system.

Bismarck Campos, CIDD Medicinal Chemist utilizes an Agilent 1290 HPLC/MS to analyze reaction products.

Differentiation of adult rat HCN neural stem cells upon treatment with DEF-001 for 4 days at 37°C in 5% CO2. Cells undergo a phenotypic change and upregulate the expression of neural markers upon treatment with compound. DAPI- nuclear stain, GFAP- astrocyte marker, Tuj1 – neuronal marker. The above image was taken on the Operetta Imaging System at a 10X magnification. Our chemical library was screened in a high-throughput format to identify compounds able to induce HCN stem differentiation towards a neuronal lineage.

Notch-activated epicardium derived stem cells (NECs) treated with DEF-001 for 4 days at 37°C in 5% CO2. Upon treatment, NECs undergo a cell fate switch and upregulate expression of cardiomyogenic proteins. DAPI- nuclear stain, COL1- collagen type I, ACTA2 – alpha smooth muscle actin. The above image was taken on the Operetta Imaging System at a 10X magnification.

About the CIDD

The Center for Innovative Drug Discovery (CIDD), a joint venture between The University of Texas at San Antonio and UT Health San Antonio, is composed of two facilities: a High-Throughput Screening (HTS) Facility located at UT Health San Antonio and a Medicinal Chemistry and Synthesis Core Facility at UTSA.

The ultimate intent of the CIDD is to provide a diverse array of core facilities and expertise to facilitate the translation of basic scientific discoveries into tangible pre-clinical candidate drugs that can be further developed into clinical therapies for human disease.

Our Mission

The mission of the Center for Innovative Drug Discovery is to catalyze collaborations with investigators by providing high-quality, industry-level services and expertise related to small molecule drug discovery and pre-clinical development.