About the NSRB
The NSRB is administered by the New England Regional Center of Excellence for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases (NERCE/BEID) and interacts closely with the Institute for Chemistry and Cell Biology, Longwood (ICCB-L) and the Laboratory for Drug Discovery in Neurodegeneration (LDDN). These three entities focus on broadly different areas, but all share the goal of using small molecule screens to analyze biological processes. The NSRB and LDDN target the biology of certain disease areas and specifically plan to identify and develop new therapeutic leads. Compound libraries and other resources are shared among the three groups, with each providing support in its particular area of expertise. Scientific direction and project prioritization is the responsibility of the NSRB Advisory Committee, which includes representatives from each of the ten RCE centers.
The long-term objective of the NSRB is to promote the development of novel screening platforms to meet changing biodefense needs. The NSRB also serves as a central resource for testing natural or synthetic compound libraries, and promotes interactions between investigators and medicinal chemists in developing lead compounds towards therapeutic products. Further development of promising lead compounds will be evaluated in consultation with NIAID and interested industrial partners.
Since its establishment in 2004, the NSRB has initiated over 35 screening projects, and the facility has the capacity to support 20-40 new screens each year. Our existing projects have a number of diverse targets, including bacterial toxin activity and expression, type III secretion and effectors, and viral entry and replication.
Funding
The National Screening Laboratory for the Regional Centers of Excellence in Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Disease is funded by the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIH grant U54AI057159).
All U.S. investigators conducting RCE-relevant work may use NSRB resources, regardless of affiliation.
