Faculty Invited to Discussion of Lilly Drug Discovery Program

A chemist who works in research and development for Eli Lilly & Co. will visit campus on Wednesday, May 6, to share insights with faculty and graduate students on the Lilly Open Innovation Drug Discovery (OIDD) program.

The event sponsored by the Office of Research will take place from 9 to 10 a.m. in Room 410, Mellon Hall. Sharon Semones, discovery chemist for Lilly, will talk about the scientific foundation behind OIDD, the business model and generally discuss Lilly’s early discovery process.

More than 380 academic institutions and small biotech companies around the globe—including scientists and technology transfer professionals—have affiliated with the program, which engages investigators in identifying novel compounds with potential to be developed into drug candidates for key areas of disease of interest to Lilly, Semones said. Thousands of compound samples have been evaluated in both phenotypic and target-based screening modules.

In addition, she said, the OIDD panel includes a neglected disease screening module, involving tuberculosis.