3 November 2025
We recently had an opportunity to speak to P. Jeffrey Conn, Founding Director and Director Emeritus at Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery at Vanderbilt University, USA. In this interview, he shares his experience on how teaming up with Boehringer Ingelheim’s scientists enabled researchers at Vanderbilt University to develop selective positive allosteric modulators of metabotropic glutamate receptor 1 (mGluR1). He also discusses the role of open innovation initiatives such as opnMe in accelerating drug discovery and shares his perspective on the collaborative efforts that shaped the development of these innovative research tools.
opnMe: What role did your collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim play in the development and optimization of selective positive allosteric modulators of mGluR1?
P. Jeffrey Conn: The collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim was absolutely critical in the development of optimized mGluR1 PAMs that had all of the properties needed as valuable research tools. Boehringer’s investment supported all of the chemistry, cellular studies, and animal studies that were required to develop these compounds. Also, our collaborators at Boehringer were highly engaged intellectually in developing the best strategies to develop these compounds.
opnMe: How would you describe your experience collaborating with Boehringer Ingelheim?
P. Jeffrey Conn: This has been an excellent two-way collaboration with highly engaged teams at both Vanderbilt and Boehringer Ingelheim. I enjoyed the level of intellectual commitment and practical contributions to the work required to develop these compounds.
opnMe: As a result of your successful collaboration, positive allosteric modulators of mGuR1 are now freely available as research tools to scientists worldwide via Boehringer’s open science portal, opnMe. In your opinion, how can open innovation initiatives like opnMe contribute to accelerating drug discovery and preclinical research?
P. Jeffrey Conn: By making high-quality research tools widely available to the scientific community. Without such initiatives, the large majority of these tools would be lost in compound archives, and their existence would be unknown to most scientists.
opnMe: In which way has opnMe changed your opinion about open science or open innovation?
P. Jeffrey Conn: opnMe is a unique resource that I have not seen in other major pharmaceutical companies. It provides extremely valuable tools for research that can help drive innovation for the entire scientific community. Before learning of opnMe, I was skeptical about whether such a vast number of research tools that are available to only a very limited number of investigators would ever become widely available. This open science model changes that and provides an exciting approach to improving our understanding of critical questions that would otherwise be difficult to address.
opnMe: Do you have any feedback or suggestions for improving opnMe's collaboration model or molecule-sharing program?
P. Jeffrey Conn: I have only positive things to say and greatly appreciate the mission of opnMe, as well as the commitment and dedication of the Boehringer’s scientists and the opnMe team.
Interested in decoding mGluR1 signaling? Explore two highly selective positive allosteric modulators (PAMs) of mGluR1, BI02982816 and its optimized reiteration BI-1752, now freely accessible via opnMe.
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About opnMe:
opnMe.com, the open innovation portal of Boehringer Ingelheim, fosters science and collaboration initiatives in areas of high unmet medical need. As part of our first pillar, the “Molecules to Order”, we share well-characterized tool compounds free of charge with no IP strings attached. With our “opn2EXPERTS” and “techMATCH” programs, we enlist scientific advice on key biologic issues to fuel further drug discovery and deliver novel solutions that benefit unmet patient needs. Our opn2TALENTS PostDoc grants, provide an opportunity for high-caliber talents to pitch their scientific approaches for well-defined research questions to conduct their research at one of our discovery research sites.