Small Molecule Discovery Center

Overview of Services

The SMDC offers an appropriate mix of industrial and academic expertise needed to advance research programs focused on developing new chemical probes with therapeutic potential. We collaborate with academic labs and pharmaceutical companies to discover compounds that bind to target proteins in vitro or in cells and can be used to modulate protein and cellular functions.

Lab members include experts in biochemistry, structural biology, cell biology, and high-throughput screening (HTS). The biochemistry group includes postdoctoral scholars, graduate students, and specialists focused on compound discovery and characterization projects. The HTS team includes staff scientists who specialize in developing and automating enzymatic-, binding-, and cell-based assay formats. The team also includes an informatics specialist who manages data for HTS and compound-optimization projects, writes software, and mines data. 

Links and Resources

  1. Assay Guidance Manual
  2. Academic Drug Discovery Consortium

Contacts

Name Role Phone Email Location
Michelle Arkin
SMDC Director
 

 
michelle.arkin@ucsf.edu
 
Genetech Hall (Mission Bay)
 
Jeff Neitz
SMDC Assoc. Director
 

 
jeffrey.neitz@ucsf.edu
 
Byers Hall (Mission Bay)
 

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