The University of Arizona’s College of Pharmacy is establishing a new drug research center. The center is designed to foster collaboration.

The research institute is called the Arizona Center for Drug Discovery. Dean Rick Schnellmann says it will harness the strengths of researchers currently spread out over various cities and institutions.

“So the initial goal is to do two things. One: Identify the people who currently do drug discovery and get a list of them and try those people working together, but equally important or maybe even more important the idea is to identify the people who want to do drug discovery but don’t know how,” says Schnellmann.

The center will have professors, students and pharmaceutical professionals working together on different drugs to treat a wide variety of diseases, including cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer's.

The center is currently reaching out to large pharmaceutical companies to discuss partnerships.