Elucidating Targets for Infectious Diseases and Cancer: A Computational Approach

188 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008.Cancer and infectious diseases represent huge health threats to societies around the globe. Bisphosphonate drugs, long known for their ability to treat bone resorption diseases, have also served as the template for designing new agents against a variety of other diseases. In this work, computational modeling methods have been applied to design the newest series of bisphosphonate molecules optimized for additional targets relating to parasitic diseases, bacterial cell wall biosynthesis, and cancer. These modeling efforts have not only resulted in more potent inhibitors, but have also increased our understanding of these disease targets, which include T. cruzi hexokinase, farnesyl diphosphate synthase, undecaprenyl diphosphate synthase, and geranylgeranyl diphosphate synthase.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD