Medicinal Chemistry Accelerator

Division Of Basic Sciences - Nci

Investigators

Abstract

The Medicinal Chemistry Accelerator (MCA) is a collaborative CCR resource that supports investigators in developing small molecule inhibitors for anticancer drug candidates. While CCR and NCATS have infrastructure to identify initial "hits" through high-throughput screening, advancing these hits into validated leads for preclinical studies requires specialized medicinal and synthetic chemistry expertise beyond the scope of individual sections. The MCA collaborates with researchers to design, synthesize, and optimize small molecules, improving potency and establishing structure-activity relationships (SAR). It also de-risks compounds through liability assays and optimizes advanced compounds for pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, toxicity, formulation, and in vivo efficacy. MCA was established by CCR leadership to help investigators advance novel cancer research discoveries into potential drug candidates.