This lecture will provide an overview of the Vanderbilt Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery (VCNDD), focusing on how an Academic Drug Discovery Center was established and is maintained. I will discuss why we elected to focus on allosteric modulation of GPCRs and how we interact with corporate partners (both biotech and big Pharma) and the structure of licensing and sponsored research. Key to the success of the Center is an appreciation that there is no 'one size fits all' for collaborations with industry and biotech, and our Center has thus far formed seven unique collaborations. In this talk, I will discuss all of these, as well as the pros and cons of the different models. Finally, I will showcase an example from HTS to IND-enabling studies for a challenging target with a corporate partner that was successful due to the 'deep dive' into the basic science by our academic arm of the VCNDD.