Basic Science Research:
Creating a Drug-Discovery Pipeline

The Welch Foundation, one of Baylor’s strongest supporters and an advocate for early research, has given more than $33 million over 50 years to Baylor’s investigators. One of these scientists is Damian Young, Ph.D. Through The Welch Foundation’s support of his endowed chair position, Dr. Young has built libraries of small molecules to rapidly and cost-effectively screen billions of them. Molecules are the fundamental building blocks of potential drugs, with specific molecules targeting biological processes in the body. The properties and structure of these molecules are crucial for determining their efficacy and safety as potential drugs. Dr. Young’s small molecule libraries identify promising leads for treating challenging diseases, such as cancer, using already existing Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs.  

To accomplish this, Dr. Young has two different platforms at Baylor: Fragment-Based Drug Discovery, which harnesses knowledge of disease-causing proteins to develop optimal drugs, and DNA-Encoded Libraries, which generate a vast collection of different drug-like molecules attached to a unique sequence of DNA that efficiently identifies compounds for disease-related proteins without laborious and costly chemical optimization. Dr. Young’s approach and these screening techniques have allowed him to create a drug discovery pipeline that rivals that of any pharmaceutical company for a fraction of the often exorbitant cost.   

Dr. Young’s work has proven so promising that The Welch Foundation awarded him a Catalyst for Discovery Program Grant in July 2024 to accelerate progress in his research. The grant was one of only two awarded in Texas and gives Dr. Young $5 million in support, a stunning show of support toward realizing the potential of small molecule libraries for treating an array of diseases.   

“The Welch Foundation is committed to supporting scientists of an exceptional caliber, like Dr. Damian Young,” said Adam Kuspa, Ph.D., president of The Welch Foundation. “What he is doing for the field of drug discovery will drive the future of therapeutic development. We are proud to invest in researchers who are spearheading bold initiatives like this.”