ARUP Laboratories' Scientist Tanya Sandrock Receives NIH Grant to Search for Additional HIV...( SALT LAKE CITY Sept. 9 /-...),Health

SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- ARUP Laboratories, a national clinical and anatomic pathology reference laboratory and a leader in innovative laboratory research and development, announced that ARUP's Tanya Sandrock, PhD, Research & Development scientist, received a prestigious National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to research additional HIV therapies. Sandrock also serves as chief scientific officer of Integratech Proteomics, a University of Utah start-up company focused on developing new peptide and small-molecule therapeutics with activity against HIV integrase, an enzyme with an essential function in the retroviral replication cycle.

The NIH grant received by Sandrock aims to obtain a small molecule that mimics the effects of an HIV integrase peptide inhibitor. "Forty million people are estimated to be infected with HIV/AIDS worldwide, and 22 million people have died since the discovery of the virus in the 1980s," explained Sandrock. "Drugs that inhibit reverse transcriptase, protease, and integrase are available, but drug side effects and viral resistance have made it necessary to develop new treatments for HIV/AIDS. The inhibitory peptide, in conjunction with yeast two-hybrid technology, may result in the discovery of new INT inhibitory compounds to integrase."

Sandrock's research aims to optimize target-peptide displacement assays; screen chemical libraries under high throughput conditions for compounds that disrupt peptide-HIV integrase interaction in yeast; and select the best small-molecular weight drug candidates for further optimization.

ARUP will provide Integratech Proteomics with access to a wet lab and equipment through its incubator program, which allows research and development activities to take place on-site.

"ARUP is fully committed to maint
'/>"/>