Thursday, 31th May, 2012, 11:00-12:00

Ongoing Adventures in Fragment Based Drug Discovery

The use of weak binding “fragments” of molecules is now recognised as an efficient and robust method of hit identification in the drug discovery process. The use and integration of fragment hits into successful lead optimisation is the critical determinant of whether this technology will become accepted as a significant tool in drug discovery. A number of compounds which have evolved using fragment based hit identification are now in phase I-III clinical trials suggesting that this is a technology which will find a permanent place in the armory of the Drug Discovery Scientist.

At the newly established Drug Discovery Programme at the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research we are exploiting the basic biology strengths within the Beatson Institute and wider Cancer Research UK network, to investigate some of the most exciting and challenging cancer targets. Central to our strategy is Fragment-Based Drug Discovery methods and we will use NMR and Surface Plasmon Resonance as primary tools for fragment-based hit identification. I will discuss some results around our initial forays into some of these areas.

Speaker: Dr. Martin Drysdale, Drug Discovery Programme, Beatson Institute for Cancer Research, Glasgow, UK

Room Charles Darwin seminar