EU project to research protease inhibitors

A new European Union-funded project will seek to develop protease inhibitors that play a role in cardiovascular diseases and cancers. The ultimate goal of the Chemical Genomics by Activity Monitoring of Proteases (CAMP) program, a three-year Specific Targeted Research Project funded under the EU Sixth Framework Program, is to design and develop drugs to control proteases involved in inflammatory disorders, cardiovascular disease, cancer and neurodegeneration.

The team is working to develop substrates with fluorescent molecules which will be attached to proteases so that they can be monitored in tissue culture and live animals in both healthy and pathological situations. The project team will thus be able to obtain information on the structure, activity and evolution of the proteases and their inhibitors.

The project is being conducted by a consortium of research groups from different universities, small and medium-sized enterprises, and a large pharmaceutical company under the coordination of the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain.