European Lead Factory

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