MRC Technology, UCB and the University of Leicester have formed a new research consortium aimed at identifying new opportunities for drug discovery through the use of antibodies in structure-based drug discovery and design.
 
The consortium will use antibodies to identify and characterize novel regulatory or allosteric sites on therapeutic target proteins, to stabilize functionally of important protein conformational states, and to characterize key structural features of complexes formed with activity modulating antibodies. The knowledge gained using this approach will be used to guide the discovery and design of novel small molecule therapeutics.
  
Justin Bryans, director, Drug Discovery at MRC Technology, said, “As a charity, it is part of MRC Technology’s strategy to pursue riskier technologies if it can expedite new treatments to patients. Our capabilities in both antibody and small molecule drug discovery leave us ideally placed to help drive this new technology towards the clinic. Collaborating with UCB and the University of Leicester will undoubtedly help us achieve our ambition in this field.”
 
Alistair Henry, Senior Director of Biological Spectroscopy at UCB, said, “UCB sees partnerships as fundamental to our success as the complexities of treating severe diseases are beyond the expertise and resource of a single organisation. Collaborating with MRC Technology and the University of Leicester to combine our expertise to open up new treatment opportunities through Antibody-Assisted Structure-Based Drug Discovery is a very exciting new venture.”
  
The Antibody-Assisted Structure-Based Drug Discovery consortium is recruiting four research scientists to be based at the Leicester Institute of Structural and Chemical Biology. The consortium’s projects will be supported by scientists at MRC Technology and UCB’s research laboratories and will have access to their antibody production facilities.