The purpose of this grant is for the purchase of a Confocal Microscope for Core Research Support project.

Using Department of Defense supercomputers, Southwest Research Institute is virtually screening millions of drug compounds to search for and test possible treatment options for the novel coronavirus 2019. The Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine has awarded SwRI a $1.9 million, one-year contract to support efforts to develop a COVID-19 treatment.

The major goal is to increase primate holding capacity for the P51 base grant.

Basic Research

Drug discovery software at Southwest Research Institute is expanding the capacity to virtually screen drug compounds for possible treatment of coronavirus and other infectious diseases.

SwRI’s Rhodium™ virtual screening tool recently evaluated 2 million drug compounds in a few days, hoping to identify high-probability drugs that may have efficacy against the coronavirus with minimal adverse side effects. Institute scientists initiated the molecular modeling research with SwRI internal funding.

The primary objective of this study is to assess the effect of GC4419 administered intravenously (IV) on the incidence and severity of severe oral mucositis (SOM) in subjects receiving post-operative or definitive therapy with single-agent cisplatin plus Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) for locally advanced, non-metastatic squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the oral cavity or oropharynx.

Presidents of San Antonio’s four largest research institutions today announced they are providing $800,000, collectively, for a major initiative in precision therapeutics. The process of precision therapeutics ultimately leads to breakthrough treatments that can be individualized to specific patient populations.

Southwest Research Institute has received new funding from the Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium (MTEC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to use an SwRI-developed bioreactor to propagate cells for personalized regenerative medicine applications. A $3 million MTEC program will demonstrate stem cell manufacturing, and a $2.3 FDA contract is funding CAR T-cell production.

The primary objective of this study (KO-TIP-007) is to determine the overall response rate (ORR) of Tipifarnib in subjects with Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC) with Harvey rat sarcoma virus gene homolog (HRAS) mutations as assessed by Independent Review Facility (IRF).

Homologous recombination (HR) is a major chromosome damage repair tool. By eliminating DNA double-strand breaks and other deleterious lesions, HR is indispensable for the maintenance of genome stability.In humans, defects in HR directly lead to cancer. This renewal project focuses on the roles of the tumorsuppressors BRCA1, BARD1, BRCA2, and PALB2 in the HR-mediated repair of damaged chromosomes.Considerable progress has been made during the last funding period, leading to important advances inunderstanding HR mechanism.