Reaction Biology Corporation, a leading early stage contract research organization, announced today that it will join a national network of scientists to increase cancer drug discovery and development, centered at the Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research.

The Frederick National Lab, sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, is managing the expansion of the Chemical Biology Consortium to 22 sites around the country with world-class expertise in high-throughput screening, structural biology, medicinal chemistry, compound profiling, cancer cell biology, and animal models for oncology. The Reaction Biology will participate in the consortium via a research subcontract from Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc., prime contractor at the national lab.

The Chemical Biology Consortium is the discovery engine for the NCI Experimental Therapeutics (NExT) Program, which brings together the nation's top public and non-public research institutions in effort to develop new molecular entities that the NCI can sponsor in clinical development.

The CBC centers will provide project teams with the technical expertise and the scientific personnel needed to navigate scientific roadblocks and advance projects through the NExT pipeline (http://next.cancer.gov/discoveryResources/cbc.htm).  Through its multidisciplinary drug discovery teams, the CBC enables translation of research findings from leading academic institutions and progression of early stage hit compounds into potent and selective drug candidates for the benefit of patients with cancer.

RBC was selected as an industry leader and innovator specializing in early drug discovery services, especially in kinase and epigenetic targets. As a strategic partner in drug discovery, RBC offers primary and secondary screening, compound selectivity profiling, assay development, assay validation, and lead characterization.

Dr. Haiching Ma, Chief Science Officer of RBC, said, "We are honored to be selected as a Specialized Center.  We think this represents important validation of our service offerings, and we are very much looking forward to participating in this collaboration in the years to come."  Dr. Ma will represent RBC on the NExT Steering Committee.

Based in Malvern, PA, RBC is a premier provider of drug screening and profiling services.  With assays directed to more than 600 kinases, RBC's coverage of the kinome is the broadest in the industry.  Using its proprietary HotSpot^SM technology and other innovations, RBC is expanding its already substantial production of epigenetic regulatory enzymes. 

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