Through this agreement, the OSUCCC – James will invest approximately $15 million for renovations of more than 19,300 square feet of the COP Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy space.
In addition, the OSUCCC – James will allocate $3 million toward a Small Molecule Screening Facility, a shared resource for which Blake Peterson, PhD, chair of the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy, will serve as director. The OSUCCC Medicinal Chemistry Shared Resource will also be relocated to the COP, allowing for synergies in the discovery and development of cancer therapeutics.
In recognition of the OSUCCC – James contributions to space renovations and research, the partners will share intellectual property revenue from current and future COP cancer-related drugs, devices and other technologies developed by researchers occupying the renovated space. The COP and the OSUCCC – James also will share the costs of acquiring patents and associated legal fees.
“The College of Pharmacy has had a partnership with the OSUCCC since the cancer center’s inception,” says Henry Mann, PharmD, dean of the COP. “This investment reinforces the groundbreaking work that we are doing to retain world-renowned researchers who are exploring new frontiers in drug discovery and development, pharmaceutical sciences and translational clinical research.”
This most recent agreement builds on a series of joint hires between the OSUCCC – James and the COP that are focused on cancer drug discovery. In 2015, Sharyn Baker, PhD, was recruited as chair of the college’s Division of Pharmaceutics and Pharmaceutical Chemistry and as the OSUCCC’s Gertrude Parker Heer Chair in Cancer Research. Baker also is the OSUCCC associate director for shared resources. Alex Sparreboom, PhD, was recruited at the same time as a professor in the COP and holds the OSUCCC’s Lucius A. Wing Chair of Cancer Research and Therapy.
Peterson, the most recent COP and OSUCCC joint faculty recruit, became chair of the Division of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy in August.