SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- ARUP Laboratories, a national clinical and anatomic pathology reference laboratory and a leader in innovative laboratory research and development, announced that ARUP’s Tanya Sandrock, PhD, Research & Development scientist, received a prestigious National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to research additional HIV therapies. Sandrock also serves as chief scientific officer of Integratech Proteomics, a University of Utah start-up company focused on developing new peptide and small-molecule therapeutics with activity against HIV integrase, an enzyme with an essential function in the retroviral replication cycle.
Sandrock’s research aims to optimize target-peptide displacement assays; screen chemical libraries under high throughput conditions for compounds that disrupt peptide-HIV integrase interaction in yeast; and select the best small-molecular weight drug candidates for further optimization.
“ARUP is fully committed to maintaining its role as a training and research laboratory of the University of Utah School of Medicine,” said ARUP Laboratories’ President and CEO Edward Ashwood, MD. “ARUP enthusiastically supports Dr. Sandrock in her research efforts. Her persistence in pursuit of a new HIV therapeutic has been impressive. Even though AIDS has been checked by the development of drugs that target the virus, more drugs are needed to control the worldwide spread of this infection.”
Integratech Proteomics will consider peptide therapy in addition to the small-molecule approach. Sandrock will examine novel nano-technology for drug delivery and will continue collaborating with the NIH, ARUP Laboratories, and the University of Utah to expand knowledge of HIV biology.
ARUP Laboratories
