Starting October 2002, the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS, a subdivision of the NIH) has been supporting the Centers of Excellence in Chemical Methods and Library Development (CMLD) Program. Innovative new methodologies in Diversity-Oriented Organic Synthesis and access to high-quality libraries of diverse chemical structures provide University of Pittsburgh scientists with powerful tools to discover small molecules with a wide range of physiological properties.

The main goal of the UPCMLD is to generate novel methodologies based on original research carried out in the areas of heterocyclic synthesis and imine additions (Project 1, Profs. Nelson & Wipf), the combination of transition metal catalysis and heterocyclizations (Project 2, Profs. Brummond & Floreancig), the implementation of microreactors (Project 3, Profs. Curran & Weber), and the development of the Universal Chemical Library (Project 4, Profs. Beratan and Yang). Our Program applies diverging strategies to assemble architecturally unique scaffolds using innovative organic synthesis, develop new separation and synthesis technologies, design and develop microreactors for nano and preparative scale parallel organic synthesis, and develop new cheminformatics tools and chemical library algorithms. The Diversity-Oriented Synthesis Core (DOS-Core, Profs. Wipf, Brummond, and Xie) validates library procedures and annotates, prepares and distributes the UPCMLD Library. Compounds in this library are structurally novel and based on the methodologies that emerged from Projects 1-4.

NIGMS also sponsors CMLDs at Boston University, the University of Kansas, the University of Chicago, and the Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard.