Overview
The Purdue Drug Discovery Training Program (PDD-TP) aims to equip predoctoral research scientists with essential skills and practical knowledge for translating scientific data into disease reduction. Training activities are organized around the identification, design, and optimization of diagnostic and therapeutic agents with novel and specific modes of drug action. Participants will become familiar with the entire spectrum of drug development, from target identification to lead generation to pipeline development and preclinical evaluation. Trainees will also be exposed to key decision-making processes that address barriers in the conversion of promising leads into Investigational New Drugs (INDs).
Students accepted into the PDD-TP will be supported for two years by an NIH-sponsored traineeship at an early stage of their thesis work, and immersed in fundamental aspects of drug discovery research and development including:
- target identification & characterization
- high-throughput screening & lead generation
- chemical synthesis & medicinal chemistry
- in vitro evaluation & structure-based drug design
- in vivo testing & analysis
- critical path analysis toward preclinical evaluation
- technical evaluation of hurdles en route to IND status
Participating Graduate Programs & Facilities
Graduate Programs: Biochemistry (College of Agriculture), Biological Sciences, Chemistry (College of Science), Industrial Physical Pharmacy, Medicinal Chemistry & Molecular Pharmacology (College of Pharmacy), Purdue University Interdisciplinary Life Science (PULSe) Program.
Research Facilities: Purdue Institute for Drug Discovery (PIDD), Bindley Biosciences Center (BBC) in Discovery Park, Purdue University Center for Cancer Research (PCCR), Evaluation & Learning Research Center (ELRC)
Selected Interdepartmental Facilities: The Purdue Mass Spectrometry Center, The Purdue Interdepartmental NMR Facility, The Purdue Microstructural Analysis Facility, Purdue Translational Pharmacology Center, Purdue Metabolite Profiling Facility, Jonathon Amy Facility of Chemical Instrumentation (JAFCI), Purdue Magnetic Resonance Imaging Facility, Purdue Histology & Phenotyping Laboratory (PHPL), Purdue Life Science Microscopy Facility (LSMF), Institute for Drug Discovery Center/High-Throughput Screening Facility, Purdue Biosciences Imaging Facility, Purdue Cryo-EM Facility.