The Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics has signed a partnership agreement with global pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline to develop new treatments for severe obesity. The entities' combined work will be funded by both GSK and a National Institutes of Health grant and focus on the potential to deploy the melanocortin-4 receptor discovered more than a decade ago by VU professor Roger Cone.

The agreement with Vanderbilt is the second GSK has signed with a U.S. institution under its Discovery Partnerships with Academia (DPAc) program. Launched in 2011, the program joins the insight and creativity of academic scientists with GSK’s drug discovery expertise to develop innovative medicines.