Reaction Biology Corp., a provider of drug discovery services, has been selected to participate as a Specialized Center in the Chemical Biology Consortium (CBC), the discovery engine of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Experimental Therapeutics (NExT) Program, administered through the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research (FNLCR), a federal national lab sponsored by the NCI, part of the National Institutes of Health, and currently operated by Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc.
 
The CBC brings together a multi-disciplinary team from government, industry, and academia to develop and advance new anticancer therapies to the clinic. This is the third contract that Reaction has been selected for by the CBC. Under this latest collaboration agreement, Reaction will leverage its expertise in Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR).  The project includes developing a robust SPR assay to measure the binding affinity of small molecules to human target proteins and conducting measurements to determine KD values for novel small molecules provided by the project team.
 
“Reaction Biology is thrilled to build upon its longstanding participation in the CBC, which began in 2016, to help identify and advance early stage drug discovery compounds through to the clinical candidate stage for cancers where great unmet needs remain,” said Rebecca Eells, Ph.D., Director of Biophysics at Reaction Biology. “As a leading service provider, our multidisciplinary research team will bring unparalleled expertise in fundamental and applied cancer research, backed by Reaction’s fully-integrated oncology and immuno-oncology drug discovery services and highly qualified technicians using our state-of-the art laboratories.”
 
Members of the CBC contribute expertise in high throughput screening, structural biology, medicinal chemistry, compound profiling, cancer cell biology, and animal models for oncology to help advance early stage drug discovery projects through to the clinical candidate stage. Through the CBC and the various participants, the NExT drug discovery and development pipeline is active from target identification through proof-of-concept clinical trials.