McPhail and Ishmael received NIH R01 funding to pursue natural products drug discovery research

Drs. Jane Ishmael and Kerry McPhail, Associate Professors of Pharmacology and Medicinal Chemistry/Natural Products, respectively, in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, received NIH R01 funding for $1.6 million to pursue natural products drug discovery research for a project titled “Modulation of Protein Biogenesis and Secretion by Natural Product Translocon Ligands.” Drs. Ishmael and McPhail are joint PIs for this international collaboration between OSU, Kyoto University and the University of Helsinki. The overall goal of this international team is to understand how to use small molecules to modulate protein secretion pathways, thus enabling the development of new therapeutic agents for chronic inflammatory and other diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and neurodegeneration.