Drug discovery research seeks to understand how disease develops at a molecular level, identifying ‘targets’ for analysis. Drug discovery uses the identified molecular target to test drug-like chemicals, and realise disease impacts. The testing and realisation are the initial steps in the drug discovery process. 

Rational design and scientific validation improve the properties of these drug-like ‘hits’ to create therapeutic drugs ready to treat disease in patients. The path of drug discovery, from initial understanding, through testing and development of a drug is referred to as the drug discovery pipeline.

The journey from scientific discovery to drug treatment is gradual. The development of anti-cancer drug venetoclax and clinical trials were preceded by two decades of research, involving a number of researchers and organisations, including Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, and AbbVie.

What is high throughput screening?

High throughput screening is a gold standard for discovering ‘hits’ during the early stages of drug discovery. The technology uses automation to test hundreds of thousands of drug-like chemicals against a biological target. The ‘hits’ discovered using high throughput screening provide a starting point for the development of new drugs.

National Drug Discovery Centre

The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research has expanded its early stage drug discovery capacity to create the National Drug Discovery Centre (NDDC).

Thanks to generous investments from the Australian and Victorian Governments and leveraging the Institute’s own contribution and philanthropic gifts, the NDDC will increase Australian medical researchers’ access to the latest in advanced robotic ultra-high throughput screening, addressing a critical early challenge in the drug discovery pipeline.

State and national funding

In 2019, the Australian Government provided $25 million in funding and the Victorian Government provided $18 million to the National Drug Discovery Centre. These investments support the expansion of the Centre, opening the National Drug Discovery Centre to the whole Australian medical research community and allowing the recruitment of highly-skilled scientists. Australian Government funding also subsidises the cost of accessing the centre for Australian academic users.

The funding builds upon the Institute’s own $32.1 million investment in the Centre, as well as previous Victorian Government support and generous donations from AWM Electrical, Mr Mike Fitzpatrick AO and Ms Helen Sykes.

Accessing the National Drug Discovery Centre

The Centre is available to users from Australia’s academic and bio-pharmaceutical sectors on a fully staffed basis. It will operate on a fee-for-service model, with a number of subsidised screens available each year for eligible academic researchers through the support of a grant from the Australian Government Medical Research Future Fund. 

An expert review panel will meet periodically to select the successful applications for subsidised screens. The first application round ran from 9 September to 7 November, 2019. Successful first round recipients were announced in early 2020.

As a prerequisite, applicants will need to have established a working assay that is HTS-compatible and has been demonstrated in 96-well format.

Applications 

Learn more about how to apply.

Melbourne Information Session

• Video: Professor Guillaume Lessene and Dr Helen Jousset provide an overview of the NDDC and application process.
• Download the presentation

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