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PRESS RELEASE FROM OXFORD UNIVERSITY Department of ChemistryOxford, August 21 2000NFCR Center for Computational Drug DesignOxford University Chemistry Department today announced the creation of the NFCR Center for Computational Drug Design. The Center will be financed by a $750,000 grant from the Bethesda, Maryland based National Foundation for Cancer Research. It will be directed by Professor Graham Richards, Chairman of Chemistry at Oxford University, and an international leader in the field. The NFCR Center for Computational Drug Design will be unusual, if not unique, in being a virtual center with its hub in Oxford but involving initially collaborators in Spain, Portugal and Italy as well as a group in London all linked through the internet. The aim is to develop methods and to design compounds which will serve as therapeutic agents against cancer. The NFCR Center has been funded for an initial period of five years and may be extended to incorporate other research groups across the world. Professor Richards said "This is a wonderful opportunity to utilise the internet and world wide web in order to amass a powerful set of groups who should be able together to make real inroads into the overwhelmingly important problem of anti-cancer drug design". "The NFCR Center for Computational drug Design at Oxford is one of an international network of NFCR Centers that seek to foster synergistic interactions between scientists around the world," said Franklin Salisbury, Jr., President of the National Foundation for Cancer Research. "With NFCR’s flexible funding support, scientists at the Oxford Center will be able to do bold and blue-sky exploration which might well lead to breakthroughs in new treatments and even a cure for cancer." National Foundation for Cancer Research The National Foundation for Cancer Research is a cancer related charity fully dedicated to advancing basic science cancer research in the laboratory. Formed in 1973 to support research related to the prevention, treatment and cure of cancer, NFCR encourages and facilitates collaboration and the sharing of ideas and results among scientists. By supporting the best ideas of the best minds, and by facilitating collaboration among scientists, advances in one field contribute to discoveries in others. This is what NFCR’s "Laboratory Without Walls" makes possible. Since 1973 NFCR has provided more than $170 million to fund discovery-oriented research that has played a key role in many current breakthroughs in the prevention, diagnosis and new treatments of all types of cancer. Oxford Chemistry Department The Oxford Chemistry Department is the largest in the western world. Each year it produces 180 graduates who have completed a four-year Chemistry course which includes a full year of research; 80 doctorates; and has 60 tenured faculty. It was one of only two UK Chemistry Departments to receive a 5* rating in the last Research Assessment Exercise for which the work of 72 academics was submitted. The Department has produced four Nobel Laureates and has 10 Fellows of The Royal Society amongst its current staff. It has been particularly successful in creating spin-out companies, three of which have become public companies. Further information and photographs: Department of Chemistry Web site www.chem.ox.ac.uk
National Foundation for Cancer Research Web Site www.nfcr.org
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