The Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases (NITD) is a small-molecule drug discovery research institute dedicated to finding new drugs for the treatment of tropical diseases.
 

The NITD is designed as part of Novartis' Corporate Citizenship efforts to improve access of medicines to the developing world. Novartis believes in the importance of a long-term commitment to helping reduce this global disease burden and thereby improving the prosperity and health of populations of developing nations.
 

The NITD was set up as a Public-Private Partnership between Novartis and the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB). Dengue fever and tuberculosis were collectively selected as the diseases on which to focus, with the possibility to expand to other disease areas in later years. Malaria has since then been added as a third focus area in mid 2006. The NITD has now grown to over 100 researchers and supporting staff since its inception in 2002.

Updates on Dengue Research
The latest issue of Dengue Digest is here. Download it now!
 

Dengue Digest Volume 4 No 1 (August 15, 2007)
 

Dengue Portal
Scientists from NITD and the Genome Institute of Singapore have created a portal for dengue whole-genome sequences, analysis tools, aggregated news and other related resources. Visit this comprehensive resource at:
 

http://www.dengueinfo.org
 

Tuberculosis Research Paper from NITD
Identifying a new drug target involves considering dozens of factors for thousands of genes over multiple datasets. We have developed a flexible software that allows a researcher to rank all the genes in a genome by their suitability as a drug target. The publication describes the application of this approach to identifying drug targets in Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
 

Read the paper
 

Dengue Research Paper from NITD
Here we present the crystallographic structure of an enzymatically active fragment of the dengue virus RdRp refined at 1.85 angstrom resolution. The NS5 nuclear localization sequences, previously thought to fold into a separate domain, form an integral part of the polymerase subdomains...
 

Yap et al. Crystal structure of the dengue virus RNA-dependent RNA polymerase catalytic domain at 1.85-angstrom resolution. Journal of Virology (2007), 81(9), 4753-4765.
 

Read paper abstract at PubMed (opens in new browser window)