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John Bamforth, director for the Eshelman Institute for Innovation at UNC-CH, oversees the Rapidly Emerging Antiviral Drug Discovery Initiative, a non-profit drug research and development organization working to find treatments for COVID-19 while anticipating need for future pandemics and public health issues.
“The goal of READDI is to have five novel antivirals against three viral families through phase one testing, which is the safety testing that goes on in drug development, within five years,” said Bamforth.
The treatment being developed interferes with the host cell reproduction, and with the similar nature found in the biology of some strains of virus, a successful treatment can have far-reaching effects and implications.
Bamforth credits READDI founders Nat Moorman and Mark Heise from the UNC School of Medicine, who work alongside Ralph Baric, who has joint appointments in the School of Medicine and Gillings School of Global Public Health, with making Carolina a leader in the study of emerging coronaviruses.
The three scientists have slightly different expertise in terms of knowledge of viral families, Bamforth said.
“As a combination, the three of them [are] pretty remarkable individuals, very driven to provide these sorts of solutions to the world. And they’re not only good on the therapeutics, which is exciting, but they’re also very good at building models for new diseases,” he said.
Bamforth joined the University in 2019 after almost 30 years with Eli Lilly and Company. He completed his bachelor of pharmacy degree at the University of Bath in Bath, England, and earned a doctorate at Aston University in Birmingham, England.
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