GlaxoSmithKline Makes Major Investment in the University of Saskatchewan

The college will use the donation to create a chair position in rational drug design, which is the process of designing new medications based on the knowledge available about the disease and the way it interacts with the human body. Drug research and design are a critical element of health care, but drug development is a long process. To potentially shorten this process, rational drug design uses information about the structure of a drug receptor to identify or create candidate drugs, rather than the traditional trial-and-error method used to develop drugs.

"GlaxoSmithKline has been a long-standing supporter of the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition and they are critical in the initiation of this discovery research," said Dr. David Hill, dean of the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition. "From work at the molecular level to research into why patients may or may not continue to take their prescribed medications, the college is very active and innovative in every level of pharmaceutical science."

The new chair position will work in collaboration with the Canadian Light Source (CLS) synchrotron which provides the capability to see living cells as they react to drugs. The collaboration between the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition and the CLS will lead to more efficient and effective design of therapeutic drugs which precisely target the source of disease, according to Hill. This work holds enormous potential for the ability to treat diseases such as cancer, HIV-AIDS and diabetes.