IITRI's New Initiatives for 2007

For-Profit Subsidiary

IITRI has recently established Technology Research, Inc. (TRI) as a wholly-owned subsidiary. TRI is incorporated as a for-profit entity that is designed to house research and development programs that fall outside of the scope of IITRI's not-for-profit charter. Narayanan Rajendran, Ph.D., Vice-President and Manager of IITRI's Inhalation Toxicology Division, will serve as President of TRI; David L. McCormick, Ph.D., D.A.B.T., IITRI Senior Vice-President and Director, will chair the TRI Board of Directors. Income from TRI programs will support staff and program development in both TRI and IITRI.

	IITRI has recently established Technology Research, Inc. (TRI) as a wholly-owned subsidiary.

Initially, TRI's emphasis will be on the operation of a sponsor-dedicated inhalation toxicology laboratory located in Richmond, Virginia. A multi-year contract to operate the Richmond laboratory has been signed, and recruitment for new staff has begun. As part of the laboratory staffing effort, IITRI is currently recruiting a Laboratory Director (Ph.D.); several Ph.D.-level toxicologists; several doctoral-level scientists with expertise in aerosol science, pulmonary physiology, and/or inhalation technology; a board-certified laboratory animal veterinarian; and a broad range of technical staff with research experience in in vivo toxicology, carcinogenesis, and inhalation technology.

The new facility is expected to open this summer, and at full staffing, will employ approximately 75 TRI staff in Richmond, with a small number of TRI support staff to be located in Chicago. As part of this contract, IITRI will also operate a training laboratory in Chicago where newly hired TRI employees will receive extensive training in procedures used in the conduct of inhalation toxicology studies.

Medicinal Chemistry Research

Do not be alarmed. You are not having a flashback to sophomore organic chemistry class. This April, synthetic organic chemistry made its debut at IITRI in the newly formed Drug Discovery Division (DDD). Effective April 1, 2007, IITRI leased wet laboratory space in the IIT Technology Incubator (located adjacent to IITRI), and hired three experienced synthetic organic/medicinal chemists. The synthetic organic/medicinal chemistry effort will be led by Dr. Robert Moriarty, Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Collaborating with Dr. Moriarty will be Rajesh Naithani, Ph.D., and Loredana Huma, M.S. These scientists will collaborate with members of IITRI's Carcinogenesis and Cancer Chemoprevention Division and Microbiology and Molecular Biology Division to synthesize and evaluate the biological activity of new chemical entities. Over the next year, it is expected that the DDD staff will be expanded to include a number of graduate students and/or research technicians.

The DDD was formed to leverage IITRI's long-standing expertise in drug efficacy evaluations for (a) cancer prevention, (b) cancer therapy, and (c) the prevention of infectious disease. With the addition of DDD scientists to the IITRI staff, we can perform complete preclinical discovery and development of novel agents for diseases of interest, from initial discovery and synthesis through GLP-compliant preclinical toxicology.

DDD staff will synthesize new molecules within several chemical classes that are expected to have significant preventive and/or therapeutic activity for these disease entities. Infectious disease research will emphasize prevention of disease associated with exposure to pathogenic agents of interest to the biodefense community. New chemical entities will then be evaluated for efficacy in both in vitro and in vivo models of cancer and infectious disease, using test systems that are in routine use at IITRI. Lead compounds will be identified, and agent activity and synthesis of new agents will be directed on the basis of structure-activity relationships. Ultimately, the most promising drug candidates will undergo initial toxicology/pharmacokinetics evaluations to identify those with the best therapeutic ratios.