BUILDING EDINBURGH’S DRUG DISCOVERY ECOSYSTEM
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Edinburgh
Department Name: UNLISTED
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
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.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
Publications
Mair G
(2023)
Accuracy of artificial intelligence software for CT angiography in stroke
in Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology
Wardlaw JM
(2022)
Accuracy of Automated Computer-Aided Diagnosis for Stroke Imaging: A Critical Evaluation of Current Evidence.
in Stroke
Mair G
(2020)
Real-world Independent Testing of e-ASPECTS Software (RITeS): statistical analysis plan.
in AMRC open research
| Description | GSK secondment |
| Amount | £233,335 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Medical Research Council (MRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 07/2021 |
| End | 06/2024 |
| Description | Attendance at ESACT drug discovery training course for 7 Post Docs |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Attendance at ESACT drug discovery training course for 7 Post Docs as part of a scheme to provide training and development opportunities for early career researchers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Careers Beyond Academia series |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | We are running Careers Beyond Academia seminars on the back of the success of the Proximity to Discovery Industry seminars. This includes industry speakers and speakers from other sectors. We hold one per month and invite early career researchers to come and listen to how speakers left academic to go to another sector and what transferable skills they can use to move away from research. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022,2023 |
| URL | https://www.ed.ac.uk/medicine-vet-medicine/our-research/cmvm-research-support/early-career-researche... |
| Description | Conducting digitally-enabled clinical trials seminar |
| 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 | The aim of the event was to start to build a community of interest including academia, industry, NHS and third sector, led by the Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh in the area of digitally enabled trials, given the work the Usher Institute is leading on with BREATHE and DataLoch, and encourage cross sector collaboration. Max of 152 attendees; (up to 9 of these were not on the registration list) Generally, 132 of the attendees stayed throughout. - 27 of these attendees were from companies/industry and funders. - Of these 27 attendees: 6 were from Funders/charities and 21 from industry/companies including attendees from: • Biosignatures Ltd: Sarah Greenhalgh and Nicola McDade • Altair Medical Limited: Bruce Henderson • ONO Pharma UK Ltd: Tracey Lavery • SOE Health Ltd: Neil Stentiford • Galecto Biotech: Jie Wang |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Development and Applications of 4D Cellular Medicine Workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | The aim of the event was to bring together a small number (30-40) of select academics and relevant industry representatives to discuss needs, requirements and development of innovative disease-relevant models and the application of such models to study disease in both time and space and provide platforms and models to support drug discovery looking specifically at the multiparametric data and analytics and statistical models that allow innovation of such platforms and greater exploitation for drug discovery. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Drug Discovery Club Seminar - Case Studies |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | 35 people attended a talk by Damian Mole and Duncan Holmes on Drug Discovery Case Studies. Duncan Holmes from GSK presented the industry opinion and Damian Mole presented the academic viewpoint. It sparked questions and discussions afterwards and helped academics network with industry professionals. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Drug Discovery Club Seminar - Cell Based Technologies |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | A seminar as part of the Drug Discovery Club series, a speaker from the University of Edinburgh and Industry (Bio Ascent) giving presentations on advancements in cell based technologies for the purposes of drug discovery. The presentations were followed by a drinks reception for networking opportunities. The aim of this event series is education, networking and collaboration. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/drug-discovery-club-cell-based-technologies-tickets-53916041331 |
| Description | Drug Discovery Club Seminar - Drug Screening |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | 35 people attended a talk by Dr Stuart McElroy and Prof Catherine Becker on Drug Screening techniques. Dr Stuart McElroy presented the industry opinion and Prof Catherina Becker presented the academic viewpoint. It spaked questions and discussions afterwards and helped academics network with industry professionals. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Drug Discovery Club Seminar - Target Validation I |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | A seminar with an industry speaker and University of Edinburgh speaker highlighting the importance of Target Identification & Validation in drug discovery process, providing examples from clinical-stage programmes. The seminar was followed by a drinks reception for networking. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/drug-discovery-club-target-validation-i-tickets-49132151588 |
| Description | ENNP Industry & Ferring Pharamaceuticals and Medicxi engagement |
| 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 | As part of the early spin-out activities that have been conducted by the partner Universities, the team has had interactions and received positive feedback from a number of investor groups (e.g. LifeArc, Epidarex, Medixci, SROne, Advent, NovoSeeds) and pharma/biotech companies (Ferring and Evotec). These interactions have been highly supportive of the expertise of the founding team, the target rationale, the molecules arising from the programme to date and the potential of the platform as a whole. They have also underlined the need to advance the programme through further optimisation to provide molecules that can be assessed in vivo in pharmacological models of fibrosis. We have recently applied for additional funding via Scottish Enterprise (SEHGSP) to support development of the lead programme through to the end of full preclinical development, representing an established value inflection point for industry. We will continue to update these groups on our progress, and will, in addition, approach other potential funding groups to assess interest. Further industry feedback regarding the proposed spin-out company's areas of activity will be sought through the extensive personal and professional contacts of the team (e.g. Abbvie, AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, GSK) as part of the developing customer discovery strategy undertaken by the founders. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Horizon Neuroscience Conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | We hosted a Horizons in Neuroscience Conference in February 2020. Pre Coronavirus pandemic it was decided that an annual conference would be created to focus on a different research/disease theme each year. The aim of these Horizons conferences is to bring academia, industry, investors, NHS and third sector companies together to discuss the changing landscape of translation. The event was hosted by Edinburgh Innovations (EI), the translation and commercialisation arm of the University; during the various networking opportunities, EI made 17 new connections that resulted in follow on connections. A direct outcome of this conference has been a partnership between Evotec, BMS and leading universities; University of Edinburgh, University of Birmingham, University of Dundee, University of Nottingham. beLab1407/University of Edinburgh partnership was founded from this conference |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Post Doc Career Seminar - Denise Barrault |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Denise Barrault presented 20 Post Docs with his career journey to inspire food for thought for their own career options. It was an informal event which helped to foster a goof Q&A session with the speaker. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Post Doc Career Seminar - Jon Moore |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Jon Moore presented 18 Post Docs with his career journey to inspire food for thought for their own career options. It was an informal event which helped to foster a goof Q&A session with the speaker. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Post Doc Career Seminar - Neil Carragher |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Neil Carragher presented 25 Post Docs with his career journey to inspire food for thought for their own career options. It was an informal event which helped to foster a goof Q&A session with the speaker. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Post Doc Careers Seminar - David Jenkinson |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | David Jenkinson presented 15 Post Docs with his career journey to inspire food for thought for their own career options. It was an informal event which helped to foster a goof Q&A session with the speaker. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Post Doc Careers Seminar - Debbie Wake |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A Post Doc careers seminar to demonstrate to University of Edinburgh Post Docs that there is a variety of translational and commercial career opportunities available to them. Debbie Wake from My Way Digital Health presented. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Post Doc Careers Seminar - Lysimachos Zografos |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A Post Doc careers seminar to demonstrate to University of Edinburgh Post Docs that there is a variety of translational and commercial career opportunities available to them. Lysimachos Zografos from Edinburgh Innovations presented. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Post Doc Careers Seminar - Mary Canning |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A Post Doc careers seminar to demonstrate to University of Edinburgh Post Docs that there is a variety of translational and commercial career opportunities available to them. Mary Canning from Epidarex presented. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Post Doc Careers Seminar - Philipp Gramlich |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Phillip Gramlich presented 40 Post Docs with his career journey to inspire food for thought for their own career options. It was an informal event which helped to foster a goof Q&A session with the speaker. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Prof Andrew Horne attendance at the Womens Health Research Institute Conference |
| 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 | Prof Andrew Horne attendance at the Womens Health Research Institute Conference in Pittsburg to meet with respresentatives from the Magee Womens Health Research Institute to discuss a collaboration for novel diagnostic blood test for endometriosis. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | Translational Advisory Group |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | We created a Translational Advisory Group (TAG) which is a group of commerically engaged academics and industry group members. This was created to ask industry for advice on how we could increase our footprint of commercially engaged academics especially early career researchers and how we could work better with industry. We are now working on a plan, based on industry advice, to progress these initiatives. We held 3 TAG meetings in 2022. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |