Beijing Key Laboratory of Active Substance Discovery and Druggability Evaluation was founded in 2011, comprising of a number of research groups from Department of Synthetic Medicinal Chemistry, Department of New Drug R&D, and Department of Drug Metabolism at Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College. The key laboratory focuses on the discovery of biologically active substances and evaluation of the druggability of lead compounds in the early stage to improve productivity of drug discovery in major therapeutic areas including oncology, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, diabetes, psychiatric and neurologic diseases, autoimmune diseases, and infectious diseases. The research interests include: 1) Target-based drug design, optimization and druggability evaluation; 2) Total synthesis, structural modification and development of bioactive natural products; 3) Chemical biology. Since 2011, the key laboratory has discovered and developed a number of clinical drug candidates exemplified by Buagafuran, Pyrifazimine, Procymod, Etomod, Immdiphen, etc.; trained over 200 graduate students, published more than 180 research papers, applied for over 180 patents, and obtained more than 90 granted patents. With support from Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, the key laboratory will continuously increase investment in scientific research and recruits more scientific talents. Insisting on the educational concept of being open to the public and serving the society, the key laboratory will strengthen a resource-sharing platform of cooperative R&D and education with an aim of better serving the pharmaceutical industry of Beijing.
