Small molecule high throughput screen using AstraZeneca facilities

This funding opportunity supports academic researchers in discovering potential starting points for small molecule medicinal drugs through high throughput screening (HTS). Applicants gain unprecedented access to over two million molecules in AstraZeneca's compound library and state-of-the-art high-throughput screening facilities at the AstraZeneca Discovery Centre in Cambridge. The Medical Research Council (MRC) provides funding to support up to four projects per year. The initiative enables academic drug discovery projects by providing HTS infrastructure, advanced compound management facilities, a large compound collection, advanced screening robotics, and multiple state-of-the-art assay platform technologies. AstraZeneca provides technical input to support assay optimisation, investigation of alternative readout technologies and pilot HTS screen, prior to transfer of the assay to the HTS platform. Depending on the results of the optimisation, a compound set of between 100,000 and 1 million of the library will be screened. The funding covers costs related to staff and consumables incurred at AstraZeneca for the optimisation and execution of the HTS, as well as travel, accommodation and subsistence for a host institution researcher to work at AstraZeneca for up to three months.