NPSC is an interdisciplinary centre that develops and screens innovative assays that move away from the traditional target-based approaches in order to discover chemical biology tool molecules and more effective drug or agchem start points – the assays embrace the complexity of biology and hence better reflect the pathophysiology of disease. Our screening platforms exploit cutting-edge high content imaging technologies using multi-parametric approaches applied to a range of systems from whole organisms (e.g. nematodes) to patient cells, human iPSC disease models and complex 3D/organoid cultures. We leverage precision genome engineering, big-data analytics, advanced chemoinformatics, employing both chemical diversity libraries and annotated compound libraries to probe targets and pathways.
The centre opened in 2015 after an £8M infrastructure award from Scottish Government to finance state-of-the-art robotics, instrumentation and computation at the School of Life Sciences and also establishing an additional platform at the Target Discovery Institute, University of Oxford. The Phenomics Discovery Initiative (PDi) is a new public-private consortium within the NPSC that aims to enhance translation of human biology into novel therapeutics for patients. The consortium is open to global pharmaceutical companies and has Janssen/J&J as its founding member - it involves the Universities of Dundee, Edinburgh and Oxford and has regular calls for disease-relevant assays that are open to the global academic/clinical/SME community.
Links:
People:
Lead Platform Engineer: John Raynor
Assay Development Scientist (PDi): Dr. Alistair Langlands
Technician (PDi): Emma Gutcher
Screening Scientist (PDi): Zoe Gage