Perseverance in Academic Drug Discovery: Development of Positive Allosteric Modulators of Metabotropic Glutamate Receptor 4 for the Treatment of Parkinson’s Disease
This lecture will focus on small molecule preclinical discovery and clinical development for a strategy designed to mimic the efficacy of deep brain stimulation in Parkinson’s disease. The talk will span early target validation, small molecule lead discovery, iterative medicinal chemistry, drug metabolism, IND enabling work, and clinical studies. Along the way, we will use this program as a case study in working through the challenges inherent to drug discovery and development, particularly in an academic setting.