Through a unique partnership among academia, industry, and government, a team of scientists from Emory University School of Medicine, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) will work together to accelerate the development of drugs to treat depression and other mood disorders. The new venture, funded through a $4.9 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health, is one of three new national NIH (NIMH and NIDA)-supported national cooperative drug discovery groups.

The "Emory-GSK-NIMH collaborative mood disorders initiative" will join the expertise of three complementary research groups: the Emory University School of Medicine department of psychiatry and behavioural sciences, the mood and anxiety disorders programme at NIMH, and the center for excellence for drug discovery in psychiatry at GlaxoSmithKline. The two major goals of the new venture will be the development of innovative new models for basic and clinical research in mood disorders, and the intensive scrutiny of novel GSK antidepressant candidates in pre-clinical and clinical studies.

Scientists at NIMH's own laboratories in Bethesda, MD, led by Dennis S. Charney, MD, will develop clinical models to assess novel antidepressants. Emory School of Medicine faculty including Michael Davis, PhD, Robert Woodruff professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and Andrew H. Miller, MD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, will develop preclinical models of fear, anxiety, and depression. In collaboration with scientists at GSK, they will test novel antidepressant candidates already under development by the pharmaceutical company as well as newly discovered candidates.

"By joining Emory's longstanding and groundbreaking research programs in depression and mood disorders with the highly successful programs at NIMH and the novel drug development program at GlaxoSmithKline, we hope to better serve the millions of patients worldwide who suffer from these debilitating conditions," said Charles B Nemeroff, MD, PhD, Reunette W Harris professor and chair of the department of psychiatry and behavioural sciences in Emory University School of Medicine, who will serve as principal investigator of this new center. Clinton D Kilts, PhD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and vice-chair for research serves as associate director of the center.

"This exciting program is an ideal example of a scientific collaboration among diverse laboratories and distinct research enterprises that can potentially lead to the rapid development of new drugs that are of tremendous benefit to patients," said Emiliangelo Ratti, senior vice president and head of the GSK centre of excellence for drug discovery in psychiatry.

The NIH national cooperative drug discovery programme was developed in order to facilitate innovative drug discovery, the development of pharmacologic tools for basic and clinical research, and the development and validation of models for evaluating novel therapeutics. The partnership among academic research centers, the NIH, and industry is an example of the "research teams of the future" outlined by the NIH in its recently released roadmap for encouraging more streamlined and rapid progression of effective clinical tools and pharmaceuticals from the laboratory into the marketplace and into patient care. The new paradigm for conducting medical research also helps fulfill an NIH goal of advancing the development of rationally designed drugs for mental disorders and drug addiction.