IBT Researchers Featured in Landmark Drug Discovery Today Article on Statewide Innovation Model
Researchers from the Institute of Biosciences and Technology (IBT) at Texas A&M University are featured in a landmark Drug Discovery Today article describing how Texas' collaborative Innovative Drug Discovery and Development (IDDD) Core Network is reshaping academic drug discovery. The feature, led by Dr. Suzanne Tomlinson-Mathis, PhD, MBA, director of innovation and entrepreneurship and executive director of the Gulf Coast Consortia (GCC) Research Evaluation and Commercialization Hub (GCC REACH) in the IBT Office of the Director, and titled "A statewide multi-institutional model that de-risks academic drug discovery", explains how shared infrastructure turns early-stage science into therapies, startups, and follow-on investment at a statewide scale (Tomlinson-Mathis & the IDDD Core Network, 2026).
A Statewide Model for Discovery
Dr. Tomlinson-Mathis, Dr. Peter Davies, Dr. Clifford Stephan, and Dr. Margie Moczygemba contributed to the feature as members of the IDDD Core Network from IBT, alongside colleagues across the Texas A&M University System and partner institutions statewide. The article reports that the IDDD Core Network has supported more than 750 drug discovery projects, helped launch more than 60 startups, and attracted more than $586 million in combined non-dilutive and dilutive capital, with 15 programs advancing toward the clinic.
Rather than asking individual labs to replicate expensive capabilities, the network pools expertise in medicinal chemistry, high-throughput screening, pharmacology, and translational development. That shared foundation allows investigators at IBT to pursue ambitious hypotheses with greater speed and confidence.
IBT's Role in the Network
Faculty at IBT bring deep strengths in structural biology, target validation, and disease-relevant models, areas essential to early drug discovery. Dr. Davies is credited in the article for his vision in founding the Gulf Coast Consortia IDDD consortium, which coordinates the network's autonomous cores across Texas institutions.
By connecting to the IDDD Core Network, IBT capabilities link directly to medicinal chemistry cores, industry advisors, and commercialization pathways that can move promising compounds toward the clinic. Graduate students and postdoctoral researchers gain exposure to the full arc of drug discovery, not just a single experiment at the bench.
Why It Matters
Academic drug discovery has historically struggled with fragmentation: strong science without the infrastructure to develop it. The Texas model described in Drug Discovery Today offers a reproducible framework for statewide collaboration.
For IBT, participation in the network reinforces a core identity: biosciences research that does not stop at publication, but pushes toward real-world impact.
Reference
Tomlinson-Mathis, S., & the IDDD Core Network. (2026). A statewide multi-institutional model that de-risks academic drug discovery. Drug Discovery Today, 31(3), Article 104685. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drudis.2026.104685