Projects
European Lead Factory
A collaborative approach to finding high quality leads for new drug discovery programs
Latest project updates
The European Lead Factory was established in 2013 to find valuable lead structures that were previously inaccessible – and which might eventually generate novel treatment options for patients. It is a pan-European drug discovery project, and a flagship open innovation resource for academia, public organizations, large pharma companies and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
185
new drug discovery projects
555,000
unique chemical compounds in the ELF library
About the European Lead Factory
Within the framework of the European Lead Factory, a Joint European Compound Library (JECL) has been created from two unique sources. First, over 300,000 compounds have been selected from previously inaccessible private company (EFPIA) collections. Second, a further 200,000 innovative compounds have been synthesized from crowd sourcing ideas by European Lead Factory chemistry partners. The initiative also offers ultra-high throughput (uHTS) screening of novel drug targets against the JECL at the European Screening Centre (ESC).
The new ESCulab project (European Screening Centre; Unique Library for Attractive Biology), supported by the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), will use the well-established European Lead Factory brand in order to continue its success story of speeding up drug discovery.
Visit the European Lead Factory website for more information.
Sustaining consortium success as a trusted partner
The project reaches out to academics and SMEs throughout Europe. Lygature helped to drive development from the beginning, establishing and managing an international consortium of 20 (previously 30) partners. From January 2016, a broad range of resources and support are provided under the Lygature brand, including:
- Scientific management and leadership. Lygature is responsible for scientific management at the Program Office, where drug discovery proposals are being recruited and where the review and selection processes are coordinated. In addition, Lygature supports the Ethics Advisory Board and is coordinator of the IMI ESCulab grant;
- Trusted partner. As an independent enabler with no conflicting interests, Lygature guides public and private drug discovery;
- Sustainability. Lygature coordinates sustainability discussions and planning for the European Screening Centre and the collaborative drug discovery concept;
- Communications. Other contributions include brand building of EU Lead Factory; communicating and disseminating (scientific) articles, policies and guidelines; and use of our intranet platform for secured document sharing.
The European Lead Factory is an important example of the Lygature mission to bring academia, industry and society together in collaborative projects that allow participants to benefit from shared resources. It has required extensive expertise in both management and science, and has helped to build many long-term partnerships which Lygature continues to support.
Top image: Screening Robot at the European Screening Centre (courtesy of the Pivot Park Screening Centre)
Lygature together with
Acknowledgement of support
The research leading to these results has received support from the Innovative Medicines Initiative Joint Undertaking under grant agreement n' 115489, resources of which are composed of financial contribution from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7 / 2007-2013) and EFPIA companies' in kind contribution.
This project has also received funding from the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking (JU) under grant agreement No 806948: ‘ESCulab: European Screening Centre; Unique Library for Attractive Biology’. The JU receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and EFPIA and Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV).
Project updates
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Over 1,000 library proposals submitted to EU Lead Factory
The European Lead Factory recently reached the milestone of having received over 1,000 library proposals for consideration. These proposals have been considered by its Library Selection Committee, leading to the approval of 627 library designs for synthetic validation.
To date, 143,529 novel compounds, out of the 200,000 prospected compounds for the Public Compound Collection, have been synthesized, which means that the ELF compound collection grows daily by approximately 250 novel compounds to eventually constitute the 500,000 Joint European Compound Library (JECL). The Public Compound Collection is highly distinctive from existing collections, has yielded active hits against several classes of disease-related biological targets, and shows high biological specificity.
The exacting criteria of the library design selection and unique chemical space that covers has been described in an article in Drug Discovery Today and the important role of this unique library and the European Lead Factory project in early drug discovery research highlighted in Frontiers in Medicine.
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Virtual biotech company launched to battle Parkinson's
In a world-first type of collaboration, Parkinson’s UK and the University of Sheffield have launched a joint venture biotech company, Keapstone Therapeutics. Parkinson’s UK has allocated 1 million GBP over the next sixteen months to further develop compounds that boost the internal cellular defence mechanisms against oxidative stress. These compounds were discovered by IMI’s European Lead Factory.
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World Cancer Day 2017
We can. I can. That is the message that is spread during World Cancer Day, on 4 February. How can you – as a collective or as an individual – take action to reduce the global burden of cancer? The European Lead Factory currently has 34 programs that focus on various targets related to cancer. In these programs innovative approaches are used to find starting points for new drugs to fight this disease.