SRI hires research veteran for nervous system drugs

With a neuropharmacology laboratory quietly under construction and a world-renowned researcher only three weeks at its helm, Southern Research Institute is wasting no time exploring expanded revenue streams for the nonprofit scientific research organization.

Dr. Maurizio Grimaldi joined SRI's drug discovery team last month, following a lengthy stint in various capacities at the National Institutes of Health, to lead efforts focused on discovering new drugs for neurological and central nervous system disorders. (Neuropharmacology, by the way, is the study of the action of drugs on the nervous system.)

Meeting the demands of an aging population more prone to central nervous system ailments is the catalyst for creating the new lab, but John Secrist III, vice president of SRI's Drug Discovery Division, says it also presents an immediate avenue for the institute to expand its reach outside the realm of successes in cancer and infectious disease research.

"This is the first step drug discovery is taking to ensure the long-term health of SRI, and Dr. Grimaldi is an example of the kind of person we want to bring in here to make drug discovery not only self-sufficient but an engine for intellectual property over the next 20 to 30 years." Secrist says.

And with six of the Food and Drug Administration's approved anti-cancer drugs on the market - and another six compounds in late stage development - all discovered in Southern Research labs, the institute is no stranger to generating results.

"For many years our senior discovery researchers have felt that we should move in the direction of neurobiology and, to a degree, this can dovetail with cancer research." Secrist says. "So, it's not a completely foreign direction for us to explore."

The top targets

Grimaldi's focus will be discovering and testing therapeutic agents to be used in the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders, including spinal cord injuries and neuromuscular disorders.

Although he will not limit his research, he says multiple sclerosis as well as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Lou Gehrig's diseases will probably be the chief disease targets.

Secrist pegged the cost of the new lab at between $500,000 and $700,000, including labor, materials and equipment.

Once the roughly 800-square-foot lab is up and running, Grimaldi - aided by a molecular biologist yet to be hired - will begin testing the effectiveness of SRI's 100,000-plus library of compounds for use in treating neurodegenerative disorders.

Grimaldi's ambition is to move any significant discoveries through the product pipeline within about three years. First priority, though, is securing sustained research money. He says he isn't counting on his tenure at NIH to guarantee funding.

"The only thing that really helps when it comes to NIH funding is the quality of work you propose to do," he says. With the amount of funding shrinking during the last two years, the battle for money has become "even more competitive."

In fact, Grimaldi says that only 15 percent of all proposals submitted to NIH officials were funded last year, down from 25 percent two years earlier.

Ability to test

Although government research structures do not allow preclinical testing, Grimaldi says SRI's private status will allow him to proceed through animal testing phases relatively untethered.

"In government, you find something - you discover some effect - but then you must hold your work because you can't carry it through the testing process," he says. "At SRI, I can conceive a compound, test it and then move it through the preclinical phase and, ultimately, take it to the licensing stage. That is something that as a pharmacologist I find invigorating.

"Here I am able to direct all of my attention to the research and the science behind it," he says.