By bridging an important gap between basic research and drug development, ESCulab will facilitate the translation of fundamental scientific insights into innovative drug starting points. New biological ideas will be collected by crowdsourcing, novel targets, phenotypes and pathways translated and de-risked by delivering high-quality chemical starting points for drug development. Innovators from EU academics and SMEs are offered access to state-of-the-art industry-grade facilities, drug discovery expertise, and a top-quality, curated library with over 550,000 unique compounds suitable for screening potential drug targets. The ESCulab drug discovery data generated will allow the innovators to build a proposition that is likely to attract investors and/or drug developers and stimulate them to further exploit these findings. Ultimately, this will result in novel medicines – based on basic scientific findings – that will help patients (sooner). ESCulab will achieve this by starting off the shoulders of the European Lead Factory (ELF), where this principle has been successfully implemented. 15 out of the 18 ESCulab consortium members were involved in ELF, thus ensuring maximum benefit from the ELF legacy. ESCulab will expand and enhance ELF by supporting 185 new screens. Important additions include the application of a much larger compound collection for screening, the ability to accommodate the more complex phenotypic screening assays, and the building of a sustainable business model to ensure access to Collaborative Drug Discovery activities beyond the funding period. The delivery of qualified hit lists (QHLs) is the end point for this project, but during the funding period, ESCulab will attract additonal funding for externally paid screens and hit-to-lead projects for organizations such as charities and foundations for long term sustainability of the initiative.

The main aim of “TECHNOTRAIN” proposal (Enabling TECHNOlogies-driven chemistry: a tailored TRAINing research program for batch and flow synthesis of chiral amino derivatives) is to create a training platform for young European researchers, based on the creativity, flexibility and accuracy characteristic of an academic working environment, but with an industrial focus. “TECHNOTRAIN” has the specific objective to develop general, reproducible and also profitable, stereoselective, catalytic synthetic methods applicable for industrial production of enantiomerically pure, functionalized amino derivatives featuring a quaternary stereocenter. Target molecules will be chiral pharmaceutically active ingredients, or immediate precursors, including nonproteogenic alfa-disubstituted-amino acids. The aim is both to synthesize specific target molecules and to develop highly efficient, technology-driven methodologies. Continuous flow processes will be considered, to perform a fast screening of the reaction conditions, and then, with the optimized conditions in hand, to scale up the reaction (by scaling-out or numbering up or scaling-up). The combination of two modern, catalytic strategies (photocatalysis and organocatalysis) with safe and environmental friendly technologies (including the use of 3D-printed devices) is a key step towards the development of a more efficient and sustainable chemistry, in line with the Europe strategy. A future generation of scientists will be trained to face the challenges imposed by the transfer the new, green technologies into industrial processes. Another primary objective of “TECHNOTRAIN” is to develop a modern training model for young European researchers, where education is realized through research and a strong interaction between public and private sector. The project wishes to be truly a prototype of an efficient European research training structure aimed at growing young researchers capable of interacting with the private sector research.

The goal of the TASPPI European Training Network (ETN) is the establishment of a highly interdisciplinary research and educational training platform for early stage scientists in the Chemical Life Sciences to overcome the inherent boundaries between academia and industry and to increase their employability in both areas. To this end we have teamed up in a consortium comprising 5 partners from industry (AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, UCB, Lead Disocvery Center, Taros Chemicals) and 6 partners from academia (Universities of Dundee, Eindhoven, Leeds, Lille, Prague, and Siena). The scientific objective of the multi-sectorial Training Network is the development and implementation of a multidisciplinary technology platform bringing together structural molecular biology, chemical biology, cell biology, synthetic chemistry, and medicinal chemistry for the identification of Small-molecule Stabilizers of Protein-Protein Interactions (PPIs) as a novel class of therapeutic agents and basic research tool compounds. With this new technological approach we aim to address a number of unmet medical needs in the areas Cancer, Neurodegenerative Diseases (Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s), Pulmonary Diseases, Inflammation and Metabolic Diseases (Diabetes).

Antimicrobial resistance is posing a continuously-rising threat to global health. Indeed, one key recommendation from the recent “Action plan against the rising threats from Antimicrobial Resistance” report (submitted by the Commission to the European Parliament and Council (15.11.2011)) is the development of effective antimicrobials or alternatives for treatment of human and animal infections. The INTEGRATE project is a direct response to this. We have assembled a team of 10 beneficiaries from eight EU member states, encompassing both academic and non-academic sectors and different disciplines, to form a consortium committed to training Early Stage Researchers (ESRs) in the discovery and preclinical validation of novel Gram-negative antibacterial agents and antibacterial targets. The principle aim of the consortium is to provide a training platform where students are exposed to every aspect of the antimicrobial discovery process, ranging from target identification and validation, through organic synthesis, in silico design and compound screening, to mode-of-action and possible resistance mechanisms. This exposure will be accomplished through a concrete secondment plan, coupled with a series of high-level consortium-wide training events and networking programmes. Our intention is to reverse the current fragmentation of approaches towards antibacterial discovery through mutual cooperation. The INTEGRATE training framework is built on an innovative research project aimed at targeting important but non-essential gene products as an effective means of reducing bacterial fitness, thereby facilitating clearance of the pathogen by the host immune system. To achieve this, the individual work programmes have been designed to seamlessly inter-mesh contributions from the fields of in silico design, organic synthesis, molecular biology and biochemistry, and the very latest in vitro and in vivo screening technologies.