September 13, 2004  

Summary of the Academic Outreach Special Interest Group Meeting
September 13, 2004 at the SBS Conference

Moderated and Chaired by Dr. Amy Wilson, Chair of the Academic Outreach Committee

The AOC SIG provides an annual forum to increase our understanding of biomolecular screening efforts in the academic community. Leaders from European and US programs presented information on their programs. Four speakers shared their experiences of establishing a drug discovery/screening facility in an academic setting. Following each presentation there were many questions and lively discussion among the “standing room only” attendees. After the program ended there was a wine and cheese networking session sponsored by Astra Zeneca in which participants could meet the speakers and other attendees and discuss issues that were important to them.

Dr. Wynne Aherne, Team Leader in Analytical Technology and Screening for the Cancer Research UK Centre for Cancer Therapeutics, The Institute for Cancer Research, was our first speaker. Dr. Aherne told the group about the drug discovery efforts to find novel cancer therapeutics including taking lead compounds through proof of principle Phase I clinical trials. The Institute offers a unique setting that allows “bench to bedside” efforts all under one roof, including high throughput screening, molecular modeling, medicinal chemistry and structural biology. Dr. Aherne explained that one advantage of having this type of effort taking place in an academic setting allows investigators the freedom to pursue non-critical pathway and mechanism of action studies. The Institute also provides an excellent drug discovery training facility for students and post-docs.

Dr. Debbie Taylor, Operations Manager, Assay Development Group of the Medical Research Council Technology (MRC Technology) discussed the organization and ongoing work of this UK group. MRC Technology is the technology transfer arm of the MRC and has its own dedicated lab space to work in collaboration with academic investigators to develop assays around novel targets, which are suitable for high throughput screening. The aim is to progress MRC funded science by licensing such assays and early stage compounds to the drug discovery industry. However, she explained that this is a real challenge and to further peak the drug discovery industry’s interest, MRC Technology is hoping to expand the existing group and in addition carry out medicinal chemistry, such that compounds can be progressed further down the drug discovery pathway.

Dr. Min Li from Johns Hopkins University was unable to attend because of the hurricane threat, however, pinch-hitting for Dr. Li was Dr. Eberhard Krausz, Head of the Screening Facility at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, who graciously offered to tell us about the work they have been performing in their newly formed facility. They are focused on assay and technology development including high throughput confocal microscopy, RNAi screens and the generation of model organisms that can be utilized by academic screeners but also by the drug discovery industry as a whole.

Our final speaker was Dr. Jim Inglese from the NIH Chemical Genomics Center (NCGC), who spoke to the group about the NIH Roadmap initiative and their goals for the next several years. Among those is the creation of the Molecular Libraries Screening Center Network which will at maturity include five extramural and one intramural (NCGC) sites. The centers of excellence will focus on configurations for HTS, screening, and optimization of the resulting probes to use as research tools. They will not be focused on drug discovery per se and will not have any interest in lead novelty or in developing intellectual property around their discoveries. All findings will be made publicly available through a database known as PubChem. The Roadmap initiative will focus on the discovery of biological insights that hopefully will assist the drug discovery process.

As we have seen before, the diversity among the various academic groups is remarkable and is evidenced by the four groups who presented at the SIG meeting. However, the lively discussion surfaced some common issues and opportunities including funding, interpersonal relationships and interaction with pharmaceutical companies.