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Sealy Institute for Drug Discovery

Welcome to the Sealy Institute for Drug Discovery

The Institute for Drug Discovery capitalizes UTMB’s world-class research in infectious disease, neuroscience, and other disciplines for therapeutics development. Through academic and industrial partnerships, we integrate the best interdisciplinary teams to discover small molecules and biologics for treatment of diseases.

Our drug discovery for pandemic preparedness is empowered by the Galveston National Laboratory, the largest biosafety-level-4 facility in the world on an academic campus, and well-established pathogen models at UTMB.

We seek collaborations with academia, industry, government, and philanthropy to develop medicines to improve and extend human lives.

Sanja Sever, PhD
Vice President, Drug Discovery
Director, Sealy Institute for Drug Discovery
John Sealy Distinguished Chair in Innovations in Molecular Biology

New Funding for Antiviral Research

The Sealy Institute for Drug Discovery (SIDD) is soliciting preproposals for feasibility and pilot projects that will result in preliminary data and subsequent funding for drug discovery research.

Preproposals Form

In the News

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2023 Drug Discovery Scholar Award

Xiangxue Deng is the first recipient of the UTMB-Novartis Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness (UNAPP) Drug Discovery Scholar Award.
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SIDD Call for Pre-proposals

The Sealy Institute for Drug Discovery (SIDD) builds academic, industrial, and community partnerships to identify clinical drug candidates, advance knowledge of drug discovery, and train the next generation of discovery researchers.

View more news >>

Mission

UTMB has a stellar track record in countermeasure development against emerging viruses through partnership with government and industry. In response to the recent emergence of Ebola virus and SARS-CoV-2, UTMB has played a pivotal role in developing the first FDA-approved therapy and vaccine. To expand the success to other disease areas, UTMB launched the Institute for Drug Discovery in September 2021. The mission of the Institute for Drug Discovery is to improve human health by:

  • Discovering and developing clinical drug candidates
  • Advancing knowledge of drug discovery
  • Training next-generation drug hunters

Vision

The Sealy Institute for Drug Discovery and Development (SIDD) is established to enable a highly qualified and talent research team with expertise in drug discovery and development to work closely with the leading UTMB investigators working in the fields of infectious diseases, neuroscience, aging, and other disciplines to take advantage of the growing opportunities provided by the emerging discoveries and new biological insights, enabling the discovery and development of novel therapeutics.

This integrated academic drug discovery program will cover target discovery and screening, lead generation and validation in novel preclinical for both small molecules and biologics.