The newly established Institute for Protein Innovation in Boston has announced commitments totaling $15 million to transform protein science and advance drug discovery.

With the funding, which includes a $10 million gift from institute co-founder Timothy A. Springer and a $5 million grant from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, IPI will bring together leaders in academic research, biotechnology, and biomedical investing to seek new therapies for currently intractable diseases. Together with its partners, the institute will work to develop and share well-validated monoclonal antibodies targeting every extracellular protein in humans; train scientists from academic and industry labs; and create shared core facilities in protein expression, antibody discovery, and biophysical analysis. The institute also plans to make its resources available to non-affiliated industry and academic investigators. Central to the IPI mission is the creation of a library of high-quality synthetic antibodies, which can be used to enable drug discovery research and may themselves become therapies for currently intractable diseases.

Founded by Harvard Medical School professors Springer and Andrew Kruse, IPI is housed at HMS but is seeking long-term laboratory and office space elsewhere in the Longwood Medical Area, a medical campus in Boston's Fenway-Kenmore neighborhood. Initially, the institute expects to create up to ten new permanent positions, with plans to increase that number to nineteen or twenty by 2022. In addition to working in the areas of glycoprotein expression and antibody discovery, the institute will recruit talent researchers in the areas of directed evolution, cell line development, and biophysical protein characterization.

"Over the past twenty years, proteins have transformed drug discovery and biomedical research, serving as the targets of almost all drugs and in many cases as therapeutic drugs themselves," said Springer, Latham Family Professor at HMS and Boston Children's Hospital. "Despite their pivotal importance in research and medicine, proteins lag behind DNA and RNA in institutional research support and funding. The IPI fills this gap, providing intellectual capital from academia to empower protein research and pioneer new therapeutics that improve human health."