According to a Pew Research study published in February 2015, there are 37 antibacterial programs currently in clinical trials in the United States. Protein structure-based methods for guiding small molecule design were used in at least 34 of these programs. Typically, this occurred at an early stage (drug discovery and/or lead optimization) prior to an Investigational New Drug (IND) application, although sometimes in retrospective studies to rationalize biological activity. Recognizing that structure-based methods are resource-intensive and often require specialized equipment and training, the NIAID has funded two Structural Genomics Centers to determine structures of infectious disease species proteins with the aim of supporting individual investigators' research programs with structural biology methods.
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