User:Sirenejoo/Center for Neglected Diseases Drug Discovery

Center for Neglected Diseases Drug Discovery (CND3)

Bringing The Most Neglected to The Main Stage

Leishmaniasis, Chagas Disease and Malaria are examples of neglected infectious diseases responsible for over 1 million deaths each year. Currently available drugs are mostly ineffective due to resistance in the causative parasites, and in some cases the drugs themselves are potentially deadly for patients. In this context, the discovery of new drugs is urgently needed.

The Pasteurian mission has always had a deeply humanistic endeavour, helping the needs of public health for over 130 years. Backed by the rich history of Institut Pasteur and with screening capabilities matching the best pharma companies, Institut Pasteur Korea emerges ideally positioned to tackle neglected diseases. Consequently, using our sophisticated high content phenotypic screening approach we are able to search for new drugs. Using living cells based approaches, we designed assays that allow selection of compounds that have potent activity against the pathogens and are at the same time not toxic for the human cells, in a faster pace than obtained by traditional pharma.

Institut Pasteur Korea is tackling neglected disease drug discovery in partnership with leading international agencies, such as the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi). The focus of DNDi is to finance the development of new and improved treatments for neglected diseases which do not interest market driven pharma R&D. Our close association with DNDi is aimed at bringing new hope to millions of individuals who suffer from neglected diseases worldwide.