The development and introduction of new therapeutics and topical microbicides against HIV remains a high public health priority. To assist in filling these public health gaps, the NIAID supports preclinical development of promising therapeutic and topical microbicide candidates that emerge from academia, the private sector, or other sources. This contract provides product development services utilizing biochemical and cell-based assays in both standard and high throughput screening (HTS) formats. The services provided under this contract will assist a wide variety of investigators in obtaining critical data needed to acquire additional funding, gain prospective partnerships (either for further development or to support Phase I trials), and fulfill regulatory agency requirements for investigational new drug (IND) applications. Interventional agents are tested in confirmatory and specialized assays in high-throughput format (i.e., greater than 96-well plates) with the objective of identifying and characterizing agents that block HIV infection, inhibit HIV gene expression and replication, and/or cure infected cells of HIV infection. Primary activities including acquiring compound libraries, adapting standard format assays to high throughput, and identifying potential anti-HIV therapeutics or topical microbicides.
