Increasing the Translational Impact of Drug Discovery
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Dundee
Department Name: UNLISTED
Abstract
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Technical Summary
The MRC Proximity to Discovery scheme awards universities funds to help develop new collaborations, and ways of exchanging knowledge and skills. The awards can be used to support activities that promote the value of academic-industry partnership, and enhance academic and industry researchers’ understanding of each other’s needs and capabilities. This may be through people exchanges, creation of technology demonstrators, showcase events, commercialisation workshops and ‘entrepreneurs in residence’ schemes. Such exchanges of knowledge and skills will boost the most fruitful collaborations between UK universities and life science companies.
| Description | High Growth Spinout Programme |
| Amount | £164,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Scottish Enterprise |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2018 |
| End | 12/2018 |
| Description | Research collaboration with Corbin Therapeutics |
| Organisation | McGill University |
| Department | Department of Biochemistry |
| Country | Canada |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | A screen was run using MALDI-TOF mass spec against 16,000 compounds followed by a number of rounds of hot expansion |
| Collaborator Contribution | McGill University supplied the protein and confirmed hits in in vitro assays |
| Impact | The collaboration is ongoing and has is currently subject to license negotiation that will deliver a financial return to the University. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Title | IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO SKIN SAMPLE VIABILITY |
| Description | A method for improving the ex vivo viability of a skin tissue type by mounting samples (27) of the skin tissue type in a skin sample holder (23), applying separate tensions to at least some of the samples and measuring the ability of at least some of the skin tissue samples to maintain live skin characteristics, such as to determine one or more value of skin tension which improve the ex vivo viability of the skin sample type. Tension may be measured using a force meter. The viability may be determined by wounding the skin, e.g. using a laser source, and measuring keratin 17 expression. Cellular viability and/or metabolic activity may also be determined. |
| IP Reference | WO2017198989 |
| Protection | Patent application published |
| Year Protection Granted | 2017 |
| Licensed | No |
| Impact | We are in licensing discussions with Genoskin, the current market leader in the supply of human skin samples for research |
| Title | Licence to Platinum Informatics |
| Description | Platinum Informatics is a spinout company from the University of Dundee led by Professor Angus Lamond. |
| IP Reference | |
| Protection | Protection not required |
| Year Protection Granted | 2018 |
| Licensed | Yes |
| Impact | The University of Dundee has licensed software developed at the University of Dundee to Platinum Informatics. There is no patent protection required. |
| Title | New Licence Agreement with Ubiquigent |
| Description | Dundee has granted Ubiquigent a licence to use background IP to develop new DUB inhibitor libraries following on from a collaboration with the DDU from 2014 - 2017. |
| IP Reference | |
| Protection | Protection not required |
| Year Protection Granted | |
| Licensed | Yes |
| Impact | The licence will give a royalty return to the University of Dundee and has allowed Ubiquigent to secure 2 grant awards for Innovate UK |
| Title | Platinum Informatics |
| Description | Trademark granted for Platinum Informatics Ltd. |
| IP Reference | |
| Protection | Trade Mark |
| Year Protection Granted | 2017 |
| Licensed | Yes |
| Impact | Platinum Informatics is a spinout company from the University of Dundee. |
| Company Name | Amphista Therapeutics |
| Description | Amphista Therapeutics develops pharmaceuticals that are designed to use targeted protein degradation to hijack and suppress cell's responsible for disease progression. |
| Year Established | 2017 |
| Impact | The company was incorporated in December 2017 with investment from Advent Life Sciences |
| Website | http://www.amphista.com |
| Description | Attendance at BIO2018 in Boston |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Attendace at BIO2018 in Boston included seminars and workshops as well as one-to-one partnering meetings |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Attended BioEurope Autumn Meeting |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | We attended BioEurope Partnering meeting and held more than 35 one to one partnering meetings as well as making a number of informal contacts through the networking events. We have since had a number of follow up calls and meetings. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Attended Takeda Innovation Event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Attendance at the invitation only Takeda Innovation Event in London and made contact with representatives from Takeda and other funding organisations such as SV Life Sciences Dementia Discovery Fund. A number of follow up meetings stemmed from this as well as a funding application to Takeda. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | BioEurope Autumn 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Attendance at BioEurope Autumn in Copenhagen for partnering and in particular collaboration building meetings with Bukwang Pharma and SYNthesis Research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Biotech & Money Event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Attended Biotech& Money event in London in Feb 2018. This included workshops and seminars as well as one-to-one partnering meetings |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Due diligence visit from Roche |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | A team of 5 from Roche in Basel visit to complete diligence |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Exhibited the DDU at UK BioScience Forum |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | We exhibited the DDU at UK BioScience Forum in London in October 2017 and had meetings with SV Life Sciences and Alzheimers Research UK. Follow up discussion is ongoing with both and a funding proposal submitted to ARUK. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Hosted a visit from Alzheimers Research UK |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Following the introduction at UK Bioscience Forum on October we hosted a visit from ARUK to the DDU. ARUK is looking for a new drug discovery partners for their next consortium. Dundee has submitted a proposal. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Hosted a visit from LifeArc |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Mike Dalrymple from LifeArc visited to talk about their new Seed Fund and to view some potential spinout opportunities from Dundee. The DDU pitched a number of projects as well as 3 spin out opportunities from the School more widely. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Hosted a visit from Parr Equity |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | A partner from Parr Equity visited the School of Life Sciences and met with 3 possible new spinout companies. Discussions are ongoing with one new spinout. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Hosted a visit from Takeda CNS Team |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Following an introduction at the Takeda Innovation Event in London on October 2017 we hosted a visit to the DDU in January 2018. Takeda has interest in our tau project and we have submitted a funding proposal |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Hosted visit from DebioPharm |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Hosted a small team from DebioPharm at the DDU for discussion around potential collaboration on antibacterial programmes. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Hosting Epidarex Ventures at the DDU |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | The DDU hosted a senior team from Epidarex in November 2017 to review the DDU portfolio of projects and a number of other spinout opportunities. Epidarex is expected to close its latest funding round in Q2 2018. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Hosting a visit from SYNthesis Research |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | As a follow up from discussion at BIoEurope we hosted a visit from the President of SYNtheisResearch to continue collaboration discussions. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Meeting with Asceneuron |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | A call was set up with Asceneuron following a connection with Merck Ventures Group at BioEurope. Asceneuron is interested in our CNS programmes if we can reach in vivo PoC. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| Description | Schrodinger workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Schrödinger hosted an all-day workshop on Thursday, June 22nd, 2017 at the University of Dundee Drug Discovery Unit (DDU) in Scotland. Schrödinger scientists Jas Bhachoo and Katalin Phimister presented an overview and applications of the Small-Molecule Drug Discovery Suite. The event provided training and networking for more than 50 scientists from Dundee and other research institutes |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.schrodinger.com/events/workshop-university-dundee-drug-discovery-unit-scotland-uk |
| Description | Visited Eli Lilly facility in Erls Wood |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Following dialogue with Lilly at BioEurope and at visits to Dundee we were invited to the Lilly facility in Erls Wood to discuss further a research collaboration. We expect to initiate a collaboration in Q2. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | World Insight article at BIO Internationals |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | The DDU was featured in a British Biotech article on British Biotech published for BioInternationals Conference in Boston in June 2018 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://worldinsight.co.uk/2018/05/31/positive-results-for-british-biotech/ |