Message from the University Executive Committee

Dr. Michael A. Bernstein, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
Dr. Richard J. Reeder, Vice President for Research
Dr. Kenneth Kaushansky, Dean, School of Medicine and Senior Vice President of Health Sciences

Under the leadership of its founding director, Distinguished Professor Iwao Ojima of the -Department of Chemistry, the Institute for Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery continues to embrace the spirit of its inception as a university-wide interdisciplinary research institute.  Since its inauguration in fall of 2004, the Institute has expanded the number of participating faculty from many departments including Chemistry, Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Medicine, Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Pharmacological Sciences, Physiology and Biophysics, Oral Biology and Pathology, Biomedical Engineering as well as from the Centers for Molecular Medicine (CMM), the Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

Collectively, chemists, biologists, medicinal chemists, pharmacologists, and physicians constitute the various multidisciplinary teams that are actively engaged in four predominant research areas of cancer therapeutics, infectious disease control, therapeutics for inflammation, diabetes/obesity, and neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease.  The institute has successfully launched three research programs: (i) Structural and Computational Biology Program, (ii) Infectious Disease Program, and (iii) Cancer Research Program. In addition, the institute is playing a key role in the Chemical Biology Training Program, funded through an NIH Chemistry-Biology Training Grant. Each program is growing steadily with increasing participation of interactive researchers across the disciplines. The formation of such teams of experts from many parts of our campus as well as neighboring research institutions will continue to be an important factor in attracting substantial research funding from the federal as well as state governments. The close collaboration with the newly empowered Cancer Center at SBU will bring about grand-breaking translational research for cancer therapy.

The Institute launched its Annual Symposium Series, "Frontiers in Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery" in the fall of 2007, which the inaugural symposium and the following 12 symposia have brought together prominent scholars as well as the rising stars in chemical biology and drug discovery to highlight cutting-edge research.  We hope that the institute continues its successful path in basic and translational biomedical research in drug discovery and development with strong financial support, not only from state and federal sponsors, but also from the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.  The continuing success of the institute will enhance Stony Brook University’s stature as a leader in chemical biology and discovery of novel therapeutic drugs.