Federal Project Grant Award Summary

Indiana University (Trustees of Indiana University) received a $1.23 million project grant from the National Institute on Aging under the Aging Research program (CFDA 93.866) awarded February 1, 2026, with completion targeted for January 31, 2031. The grant supports the development of an artificial intelligence-driven drug discovery pipeline designed to identify and optimize lead compounds for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (AD/ADRD). The research will deliver three primary products: (1) an accelerated virtual screening pipeline incorporating small molecule foundation models, Bayesian ensemble learning, and active learning techniques to enable efficient screening of billion-scale compound libraries; (2) a similarity-based virtual screening capability leveraging affinity selection mass spectrometry and advanced computational tools for AD/ADRD targets lacking ligand-bound structures; and (3) predictive artificial intelligence and machine learning models trained on a large-scale dataset to forecast blood-brain barrier permeability parameters (Kp,uu and Pgp ER), advancing understanding of brain penetration for small-molecule therapeutics.

These research deliverables address critical gaps in current computational methods for drug discovery by combining advanced machine learning techniques with experimental validation approaches. The project directly supports the National Institute on Aging's mission to develop novel approaches for preventing and treating Alzheimer's disease and related dementias through biomedical research. Performance will be conducted at Indiana University's Woodbridge, Indiana location.