IMM EXPANDS: TMC3 welcomes TTI

The Institute of Molecular Medicine’s Texas Therapeutics Institute is the first UTHealth Houston occupant of the TMC3 Collaborative Building at Helix Park.  Led by Zhiqiang An, PhD, TTI focuses on antibody drug resistance mechanisms, biomarkers for therapeutic antibodies, and antibody drug discovery targeting human diseases.

The TMC3 Collaborative Building aims to build research innovation through new collaborations among scientists from UTHealth Houston, the Texas Medical Center, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Texas A&M University Health Science Center.

“It’s an honor to be one of the first labs in the building,” said An, professor of molecular medicine, TTI director, and vice president of drug discovery at UTHealth Houston. “The Texas Medical
Center recognizes the benefit of collaborative work, so the beauty of TMC3 is that it will allow us to work closely with other members in the medical center.”

The expansion of the Texas Medical Center aims to further strengthen the IMM’s productive faculty. “This new life sciences ecosystem, the 37-acre TMC Helix Park, promises not only to provide valuable research space but also new opportunities, setting the stage for long-lasting impact,” said John Hancock, MA, MB, BChir, PhD, ScD, executive director of the IMM and executive dean of McGovern Medical School.

The Antibody Drug Conjugate Lab led by Kyoji Tsuchikama, PhD, associate professor; the Antibody Drug Discovery Lab led by An and Ningyan Zhang, PhD, professor; and the Antibody Structural Biology and Virology Lab led by Kai Xu, PhD, now call TMC3 home.

TTI support includes grants from the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), which includes two CPRIT CORE grants for antibody drug development totaling $11.2 million. The institute also has support from the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry and has established collaborations with numerous state and national leaders in drug discovery in both academia and industry.

As UTHealth Houston’s inaugural vice president of drug discovery, An works in close collaboration with researchers across campus as well as with key offices to promote drug discovery and therapeutic innovation. He is an elected fellow of the Society for Industrial Microbiology and Biotechnology, the American Academy of Microbiology, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the National Academy of Inventors. He recently earned the 2024 Scientific Achievement Award in Drug Discovery and Development from the American Society for Pharmacology and
Experimental Therapeutics.

An earned his PhD from the University of Kentucky and completed his postdoctoral training at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Prior to joining UTHealth Houston in 2009, he served as chief scientific officer at Epitomics, Inc. and was director of Biologics Research at Merck Research Laboratories.

“I am looking forward to expanding our labs into the new collaborative building, and I am thankful to the medical center and the faculty and
staff at UTHealth Houston who support our translational research and believe in our work,” said An, the Robert A. Welch Distinguished University Chair in Chemistry.