Table 1 Drug discovery facilities in the United Kingdom*
From: Academic drug discovery within the United Kingdom: a reassessment
Facility | Host institution | Main disease indications | Funding sources | Staff | Platforms | Technologies | No. of screens per year | Medicinal chemistry follow-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
University of Dundee | Diseases of the developing world and innovative targets and pathways | UK government, charities and industry | >70 | Biophysical, biochemical and cellular assays | Multiple | NA | Yes | |
University of Dundee, University of Oxford and University of Edinburgh | All diseases, with human prioritized over non-human | UK government, charities and industry | ~25 | Small molecules, 3D, tissue, patient cells, iPS cells and genome engineering | HCI, MPA, label-free and HT flow cytometry | 10–15 | Yes | |
European Screening Centre Newhouse and European Lead Factory | Multiple sites across the United Kingdom (including Dundee and Lanarkshire) and Europe | All human diseases | Innovative Medicines Initiative and in-kind contributions from EFPIA participants | 50 | Small molecules (326,000§), biophysical and biochemical assays | Ultra-HTS plate-reader, SPR and label-free | 30 | Yes |
Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre, University of Edinburgh | Oncology | Industry alliances, MRC and University of Edinburgh | 14 | Small molecules and chemical library synthesis | HCI, MPA, image informatics, reverse phase protein array and dual ligand | 12 | Yes | |
CRUK Beatson Institute, University of Glasgow | Oncology | CRUK | 5 | Genome-wide human and mouse RNAi and drug repurposing | HCI, MPA and HTS plate reader | 8 | No | |
CRUK Beatson Institute, University of Glasgow | Oncology | CRUK | 30 | Fragments | NMR and SPR | 1–5 | Yes | |
Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, University of Glasgow | Neglected diseases and parasitology | Wellcome Trust and SULSA | 3 | Small molecules and RNAi | HCI and HTS plate reader | 6 | Yes | |
Queen's University, Belfast | Oncology | Almac, Queen's University and Invest Northern Ireland | 20 | Fragments, CADD and virtual screening | SPR, thermophoresis, Schrodinger, MOE, HCI and MPA | 3 | Yes | |
University of Leeds | All human diseases | University of Leeds, UK government, charities and industry | 5 | Small molecules (50,000), drug repurposing, fragments and virtual screening | Biochemical, phenotypic and biophysical | 5–10 | Yes | |
University of Leeds | All human diseases | University of Leeds, UK government, charities and European Commission | 2 | Genome-wide human and mouse RNAi, miRNA inhibitors and mimics, small-molecule screening and drug repurposing | HCI, MPA and HTS plate reader | 5–8 | Yes | |
University of Leeds | All human diseases | University of Leeds, UK government, charities and industry | 19 | Biologics | Phage display, biochemical and biophysical | 150 | Yes | |
CRUK Manchester Institute, University of Manchester | Oncology | CRUK | 5 | Small molecules and drug repurposing | HCI | 5–10 | Yes | |
University of Sheffield | Oncology, Parkinson disease and myeloproliferative neoplasms | Wellcome Trust, Yorkshire Cancer Research and University of Sheffield | 2 | Genome-wide drosophila RNAi, human siRNA and small molecules | HCI, MPA and HTS plate reader | 16 | No | |
University of Sheffield | Motor neuron disease and Parkinson disease | Wellcome Trust, MRCT, MNDA and Parkinson's UK | 6 | Small molecules | HCI, MPA, HTS plate reader and metabolic outputs | 2 | No | |
University of Sheffield | Zebrafish models of disease, including epilepsy, inflammation, infection, hypoxia and ototoxicity | MRC, BBSRC, charities and industry | 1 | Small molecules | HCI, MPA, HTS plate reader and microscopy | 5–10 | Yes | |
University of Nottingham | All human diseases | Charities, industry and the European Union | 2 | Small molecules | HCI and HTS plate reader | 2–4 | Yes | |
University of Birmingham | Infectious diseases (tuberculosis, and Salmonella enterica and Staphylococcus aureus infection), leukaemia, lymphoma and HBV | MRC, Wellcome Trust and ERC | 3 | Small molecules | HTS plate reader | 5 | Yes | |
Babraham Research Campus, Cambridge | Oncology | Industry alliances, CRT and CRUK | 74 | Small molecules (>100,000), fragments and RNAi | HCI, MPA, HTS plate reader, MSD technology, SPR, ITC and crystallography | 6 | Yes | |
University of Oxford | Oncology, cardiovascular and neuro-degeneration | UK government, University of Oxford, UK charities, industry and SRFs | >50 | Small molecules (50,000), drug repurposing, fragments and RNAi | HCI, HTS plate reader, RT-PCR and HTFACS | 20 | Yes | |
The Institute of Cancer Research, London | Oncology | CRUK, ICR, Wellcome Trust and industrial collaborators | 143 | Small molecules (210,000), fragments (2,000) and siRNA | HCI, HTS plate reader, mobility shift assays, SPR, ITC, DSF and crystallography | 3 | Yes | |
Crick Institute | Oncology | CRUK | 4 | Genome-wide RNAi, small molecules (4,000) and fragments | HCI, MPA, HTS plate reader, thermal melt and FACS | 20–30 | No | |
University College London | Neurodegeneration, oncology, HIV, cell biology | MRC | 4 | RNAi, cDNA, small molecules, CRISPR | HCI, MPA, HTS plate reader | 15–20 | Yes | |
MRC, London | All including oncology, fibrosis, neurodegeneration, inflammation, anti-infectives, pain, autoimmune disease, Cushing disease | Self-funded through income from translational activities | Small molecules (>250,000), phage and antibodies | HCI, MPA, HTS plate reader, label free, SPR, ITC, thermal shift | 8–10 | Yes | ||
University of Sussex | Oncology, neuroscience | Wellcome Trust, CRUK | 18 | Structure-based drug discovery | Biophysical, crystallography, virtual screening, high-throughput electrophysiology | 4 | Yes |
