MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE: A Major Grant to Fight Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis Awarded To St. Jude in Collaboration With GlaxoSmithKline - The Funding Will Go Toward Development of a New Drug to Fight the Disease^*

MEMPHIS, Tenn., Feb 27, 2001 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, in collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline (grant awarded pre-merger to SmithKline Beecham) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), was awarded a $2.4 million grant for the development of a new drug active against multi-drug resistant tuberculosis. The basis of the drug is thiolactomycin (TLM), a compound that blocks a vital metabolic process in the bacteria causing tuberculosis. TLM shows promise in fighting a host of bacterial and parasitic infections, including staphylococcus, streptococcus and malaria. St. Jude began research on TLM in 1988, but halted the studies soon after. "At that time, there really wasn't much interest in developing new drugs because this whole problem we're having with multiple drug resistance and drug resistant organisms wasn't on the radar screen the way it is today," said Dr. Charles Rock, a scientist in the Biochemistry department at St. Jude. A team of St. Jude investigators, including Drs. Rock, Elaine Tuomanen and Stephen White, was insatrumental in obtaining the grant. "Infection is the number one killer of all children-healthy children worldwide and cancer patients at St. Jude," said Tuomanen, chair of the department of Infectious Diseases at St. Jude. "The research supported by this grant fits nicely into what we are trying to achieve with the new Children's Infection Defense Center (CIDC)." The CIDC is part of the current St. Jude expansion. The mission of the CIDC is to eliminate catastrophic infectious killers of children by unlocking mysteries of human immunity and discovering how bacteria and viruses cause disease. White, chair of the Structural Biology department at St. Jude, is a key player in the TLM research. White discovered the crystal structure of the target enzyme forming the basis of the pharmacological design of TLM and other inhibitors.... The St. Jude team's research will be published in the March 2, 2001 Journal of Biological Chemistry.... GlaxoSmithKline and St. Jude will contribute a combined $1.2 million funds for the research. The NIH provides matching funds. The entire grant representing $2.4 million over an estimated three years, will be allocated in accordance with specific milestones relating directly to drug development........ St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, in Memphis, Tennessee, was founded by the late entertainer Danny Thomas. The hospital is an internationally recognized biomedical research center dedicated to finding cures for catastrophic diseases of childhood. The hospital's work is supported by the American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities(R) (ALSAC(R)). All St. Jude patients are treated regardless of their families' ability to pay. ALSAC covers all costs of treatment beyond those covered by third party insurers and total costs for families who have no insurance.

* Thanks to Prevention News Update for providing this news story.

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