The projection and development of new pharmaceuticals and the identification of new therapeutic targets is one of the research activities of CERM.  This is evidenced by the works published in prestigious international journals in the last years that CERM personnel have co-authored together with researchers from university spin-off ProtEra.  The strategy behind the collaboration between CERM and ProtEra, which also involves the non-profit pharmacogenomic foundation FiorGen and colleagues in medicine and organic chemistry, is based on the following efforts: the definition of a pathology of interest, genomic analysis to identify potential therapeutic targets, in silico target analysis to contribute to structural modeling (based on the templates of homologous proteins), continuing on to molecular docking.  This process also includes cloning, the expression and purification of the selected target and the synthesis of other selected molecules.  Together, these methods provide for rational drug design, allowing for real-time experimental data on interaction efficiencies and the ability to optimize the projection of new molecules.  The attention of CERM researchers is concentrated in certain classes of proteins involved in relevant pathologies, including S100, phosphatases, and matrix metalloproteins (MMPs).  CERM has obtained significant results with novel inhibitors of the latter.