Oregon Public Broadcasting

An Oregon research institute announced Tuesday that it has found many new compounds to treat infectious diseases, including E coli and malaria.

The institute goes by the acronym OTRADI.  It's a collaboration among scientists from several Oregon universities.

Cell biologist Jennifer Fox says the institute is giving chemists a chance to examine compounds that would otherwise not be tested.  Within its first six weeks of operations, she says the lab had some very positive results.

Jennifer Fox: “The chemicals that we found kill the parasite that causes malaria did so as well as the best drug that’s out there now.  It’s a big deal because that gives these chemists a lead to say ‘let me build even better compounds around this information.’”

Of the 200 compounds the lab tested, 28 were discovered to have previously unknown anti-malarial properties.

Fox says the process of discovering new drugs is long and expensive.  She hopes OTRADI can help speed up the process by testing large amounts of the chemical compounds that will go to drug companies for further research.