Drug development research at the stage between basic discovery and late-stage development is often considered risky and thus difficult to fund. The Structure-guided Drug Discovery Coalition (SDDC) is a consortium of structural genomics and drug screening centers whose aim is to bridge this gap by performing structure-based lead optimization of validated drug candidates for delivery to pre-clinical development partners, while providing public access to the resulting information in order to benefit the scientific community.
The consortium is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, with in-kind support provided by consortium partners. The consortium includes the NIAID-funded Seattle Structural Genomics Center for Infectious Disease (SSGCID) and the Center for Structural Genomics of Infectious Diseases (CSGID) as well as the Structural Genomics Consortium and the Tuberculosis Structural Genomics Consortium.
The SDDC efforts focus on tuberculosis (TB), malaria, and more recently, the neglected diseases—cryptosporidiosis and filarial diseases. The SSGCID and CSGID provide structural data to support the delivery of Early drug Leads. To date, the program has determined 15 target structures as well as additional ligand bound structures for selected targets. Drug development work by SDDC partners has resulted in 2 targets with pre-clinical candidates. SDDC has delivered 3 early drug leads to downstream partners and an additional 3 are nearing completion, including backup compounds.