Phenomics Discovery initiative (PDi)
The Universities of Dundee, Oxford and Edinburgh have announced the formation of the Phenomics Discovery initiative (PDi) with Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V. the first industry partner joining the initiative: 20 January 2016
The Universities of Dundee, Oxford and Edinburgh have announced the formation of the Phenomics Discovery initiative (PDi) with Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V. the first industry partner joining the initiative.
A phenotype is one or more observable features or traits that report changes in a biological system or its reaction to its environment. Phenotypic screening is the systematic identification of agents (such as small molecules, biological molecules or genetic mutations) that alter a phenotype. A continuing challenge for innovative drug discovery is to identify and validate novel biological targets which are critical in developing and/or sustaining disease. Despite substantial effort over many years, compounds advanced to development using classical molecular target-based approaches often fail to show the anticipated efficacy in human clinical trials. The PDi will provide pre-competitive access to technology, assay methodologies, high-throughput data, materials and know-how. The assays will be used for screens on publicly available small molecules at the three academic sites - Dundee, Oxford and Edinburgh - which form the National Phenotypic Screening Centre (NPSC) hubs. Industry partners gain immediate access to the developed assays to enable internal drug discovery activities, in partnership with the academic collaborators.
The PDi plans to attract additional industry partners and translate novel biology from a global network of academic collaborators. All partners will benefit from these interactions as new industry-academic partnerships are formed first-hand from novel biological research.Through the PDi, partners will build robust, disease-relevant phenotypic assays with a focus on human-derived systems with the aim of identifying new drug targets and hit molecules. Promising candidates will be followed up for their mechanism of action in the cell in order to further their development into drugs.
Edinburgh University’s Professor Neil Carragher, Chief Scientific Officer for the PDi, said “The focus of the PDi consortium will be the development of novel phenotypic assays amenable to high throughput screening, with the goal of identifying new pathways and mechanisms for drug discovery, by employing systems with higher potential for translation into the clinic. The phenotypic screens we will use are more relevant to patients and their disorders and as such the goals of the PDI are to advance drug discovery towards improved clinical outcomes through joint academic-industry collaboration”.
www.ed.ac.uk/news/2016/drugspartnership-200116
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