Periodic Reporting for period 2 - EU-OPENSCREEN-DRIVE (Ensuring long-term sustainability of excellence in chemical biology within Europe and beyond)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2020-08-01 do 2022-03-31
EU-OPENSCREEN (EU-OS), the distributed European Research Infrastructure (RI) for Chemical Biology, manages access to high-throughput screening and chemistry facilities, and operates a common database and a central compound management facility. EU-OS facilitates world-class research by researchers from academia and industry in chemical biology and early drug discovery. EU-OS makes available the rich chemical knowledge of individual chemists across Europe to enable systematic studies of the bioactivities of these compounds that could lead to ground-breaking insights into their potential application as therapeutics. After consideration of IPR from all stakeholders involved, all results will eventually become available to the public. EU-OS therefore plays an increasingly important role not only in basic research but also in facilitating drug discovery programs in Europe. Following the Long-term Sustainability Action Plan of the EC and ESFRI, EU-OS-DRIVE promotes measures for i) widening awareness of academia and industry for its services and data, ii) extending the capabilities and service portfolio of EU-OS , and iii) enhancing management processes.
The work performed addressed the main objectives of DRIVE: i) implement the EU-OPENSCREEN (EU-OS) scientific program and the delivery of its main mission: to build a sustainable European RI for chemical biology, supporting life-science research with innovative chemical tools and bioactivity data and their translation into medicines and products for the benefit of the society, and ii) to consolidate EU-OS ERIC membership, supporting the national efforts in EU-OS’s member and candidate countries.
In this respect, DRIVE: 1) refined access policies and workflows for ERIC users and produced outreach material on how users can work with EU-OS. 2) established a network of scientists (‘EU-OS Ambassadors’) along with a legal framework, procedures that sourced the first academic compounds (1500) from European chemists as a unique asset for the EU-OS compound collection. 3) launched the first small molecule open screening call, including newly-developed access modalities and review processes to support the implementation of 13 proposals of researcher from eight European countries, improving the transnational collaboration within Europe. These projects adress open questions in oncology, neurodegenerative diseases, inflammation, viral infection and diabetes. To utilize the whole EU-OS discovery pipeline, two successful EU-OPENSCREEN-DRIVE small molecule screening projects started to optimise identified hits with our medicinal chemistry sites. Additional three hit-to-lead campaigns are currently evaluated. 4) designed a unique fragment library deriving from the fragment space of the EU-OS small molecule diversity library to further extend the ERIC service portfolio. Together with the structural biology community (Instruct-ERIC/ iNEXT-Discovery) a complete fragment-based drug discovery pipeline from fragment screening campaigns to hit evolution was built and is currently tested in first projects that assess library performance and our fragment-to-lead consultation service. 5) launched two open calls in the field of chemical proteomics and MSI with the aim to offer transnational access to target-based and phenotypic workflows. Five proposals from five countries were selected for scientific support from DRIVE advanced proteomic and MSI facilities. These projects covered a broad range of scientific fields, ranging from mood disorders, inflammation, cancer and prion diseases. 6) focused on mapping current data management procedures among DRIVE participants, the preparation of the data management plan and the optimization of the data upload process with high emphasis on data description and reuse. Additional data workflows were developed to quickly deploy new results from Covid-19 pandemic screening efforts. 7) constituted industry boards, which enable engagement with companies and came together in the first industry liaison office workshop in February 2021 to open discussions on sustainable EU-OS industry engagement strategies. Four co-development projects with industry partners aimed at developing new technologies were initiated. A roadmap for industry interaction to implement collaborative projects between EU-OS and different industries was prepared. 8) prepared a training program tailored to the needs of the chemical biology community and EU-OS researchers possibly together with other RIs. The first training school was organized virtually in November 2021 with more than 300 participants and 16 speakers. Two training webinars were held in fall 2021. An on-site course with 7 attendees on Compound logistics was realized for EU-OS staff in March 2022 at the Institute of Molecular Genetics in Prague. 9) ensured the overall management of the project activities by setting up transparent workflows, procedures and tools for monitoring and reporting multidisciplinary project activities and raised awareness of EU-OS services and resources among the user community and policy makers. 10) designed and implemented a targeted methodology to monitor ethical issues, which could arise during transnational activities and beyond with the aim to regulate ethics and research integrity aspects following international and national laws. 11) organized local thematic workshops in 'ERIC candidate countries' to consolidate the chemical biology community with the aim to include EU-OS on national roadmaps, to raise awareness of the RI among potential users and to enlarge EU-OS ERIC membership. These efforts resulted in Portugal joining EU-OS beginning 2022. 12) started discussions with international institutions to explore opportunities for formal collaborations with Chemical Biology experts and institutions outside of Europe to promote the RI’s global network. In 2021, we reached out to more than 1000 registered participants through the virtual European Chemical Biology Symposium covering recent discoveries in screening and drug discovery, systems biology and therapeutic innovation.
In this respect, DRIVE: 1) refined access policies and workflows for ERIC users and produced outreach material on how users can work with EU-OS. 2) established a network of scientists (‘EU-OS Ambassadors’) along with a legal framework, procedures that sourced the first academic compounds (1500) from European chemists as a unique asset for the EU-OS compound collection. 3) launched the first small molecule open screening call, including newly-developed access modalities and review processes to support the implementation of 13 proposals of researcher from eight European countries, improving the transnational collaboration within Europe. These projects adress open questions in oncology, neurodegenerative diseases, inflammation, viral infection and diabetes. To utilize the whole EU-OS discovery pipeline, two successful EU-OPENSCREEN-DRIVE small molecule screening projects started to optimise identified hits with our medicinal chemistry sites. Additional three hit-to-lead campaigns are currently evaluated. 4) designed a unique fragment library deriving from the fragment space of the EU-OS small molecule diversity library to further extend the ERIC service portfolio. Together with the structural biology community (Instruct-ERIC/ iNEXT-Discovery) a complete fragment-based drug discovery pipeline from fragment screening campaigns to hit evolution was built and is currently tested in first projects that assess library performance and our fragment-to-lead consultation service. 5) launched two open calls in the field of chemical proteomics and MSI with the aim to offer transnational access to target-based and phenotypic workflows. Five proposals from five countries were selected for scientific support from DRIVE advanced proteomic and MSI facilities. These projects covered a broad range of scientific fields, ranging from mood disorders, inflammation, cancer and prion diseases. 6) focused on mapping current data management procedures among DRIVE participants, the preparation of the data management plan and the optimization of the data upload process with high emphasis on data description and reuse. Additional data workflows were developed to quickly deploy new results from Covid-19 pandemic screening efforts. 7) constituted industry boards, which enable engagement with companies and came together in the first industry liaison office workshop in February 2021 to open discussions on sustainable EU-OS industry engagement strategies. Four co-development projects with industry partners aimed at developing new technologies were initiated. A roadmap for industry interaction to implement collaborative projects between EU-OS and different industries was prepared. 8) prepared a training program tailored to the needs of the chemical biology community and EU-OS researchers possibly together with other RIs. The first training school was organized virtually in November 2021 with more than 300 participants and 16 speakers. Two training webinars were held in fall 2021. An on-site course with 7 attendees on Compound logistics was realized for EU-OS staff in March 2022 at the Institute of Molecular Genetics in Prague. 9) ensured the overall management of the project activities by setting up transparent workflows, procedures and tools for monitoring and reporting multidisciplinary project activities and raised awareness of EU-OS services and resources among the user community and policy makers. 10) designed and implemented a targeted methodology to monitor ethical issues, which could arise during transnational activities and beyond with the aim to regulate ethics and research integrity aspects following international and national laws. 11) organized local thematic workshops in 'ERIC candidate countries' to consolidate the chemical biology community with the aim to include EU-OS on national roadmaps, to raise awareness of the RI among potential users and to enlarge EU-OS ERIC membership. These efforts resulted in Portugal joining EU-OS beginning 2022. 12) started discussions with international institutions to explore opportunities for formal collaborations with Chemical Biology experts and institutions outside of Europe to promote the RI’s global network. In 2021, we reached out to more than 1000 registered participants through the virtual European Chemical Biology Symposium covering recent discoveries in screening and drug discovery, systems biology and therapeutic innovation.
As a distributed RI with multiple complementary partner sites, EU-OS offers users access to technologies and expertise that are beyond the capabilities of most individual institutes and SMEs. Leveraging the integrated resources, technical capabilities and know-how saves considerable time and expenses and ultimately the public investment made into basic research. The generation of tool and lead compounds enables the translation of promising projects by the pharmaceutical industry, therefore driving competitiveness and efficiency in this sector. Moreover, the systematic sourcing of academic compounds from chemistry groups across Europe ensures that under-exploited compounds become accessible to the research community, as a truly European asset. The focus on quality, standardised processes and workflows will help improve pre-clinical data reproducibility. Downstream effects of improved validation of therapeutic targets using quality tool compounds reduce animal testing and contribute to a higher success rate in Phase II clinical trials (Nat Rev Drug Discov. 2013;12(8):569). Dissemination of bioactivity data according to the FAIR principles will allow users to access and re-use EU-OS data globally and provide starting points for new medicines urgently needed for an aging European society.