EU-OPENSCREEN

European Infrastructure of Open Screening Platforms for Chemical Biology

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'The EU-OPENSCREEN Preparatory Phase forms the basis for the construction and operation of a pan-European infrastructure of open screening platforms for Chemical Biology. EU-OPENSCREEN will bring together leading laboratories from 14 European countries covering all aspects of Chemical Biology from high-throughput screening with a dedicated compound library to assay development, chemical synthesis for hit-optimisation, bio-profiling and in vivo studies, as well as a central database, training for scientists and platform staff and dissemination activities. The infrastructure will be used by researchers from universities, research institutes and SMEs across Europe, who either have only limited in-house facilities or no access at all to such resources and expertise. The EU-OPENSCREEN infrastructure will keep Europe at the forefront of the biological and medical sciences and will stimulate industrial research and commercial exploitation. In order to prepare the creation of an efficient network of centres which provide users with optimal resources, the EU-OPENSCREEN Preparatory Phase will address the following issues: - A user-focused access strategy. - The physical infrastructure requirements. - Suitable data standards and the framework for a database to archive and make the results available to the scientific community. - A financial management plan for the construction and sustainable operation of the infrastructure in co-operation with national funding bodies. - The legal approach regarding intellectual property issues. - An appropriate legal and governance structure. - The development of a Chemical Biology education package to ensure adequate training of scientists and platform staff. - A central Chemical Biology information gateway in form of a website. - The dissemination of the business plan to stakeholders and decision makers and co-ordination with national funding strategies.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Chemical biology is a fast-growing research field that provides new opportunities to study complex biological processes in the post-genomic era. Chemical substances represent efficient tools for targeting biological molecules, thus selectively modulating their function in health and disease.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Modern chemical biology is surpassing traditional approaches to manipulating the function of cellular components (such as proteins) of living processes. The technology involves screening a large number of compounds, which is a rather demanding task in terms of expertise, resources and experienced personnel, unavailable to many researchers.

To overcome this, the EU-funded preparatory phase project 'European infrastructure of open screening platforms for chemical biology' (http://www.eu-openscreen.eu (EU-OPENSCREEN)) is establishing a network of high-tech facilities and resources. The initiative aims to meet the need for new bioactive compounds in life sciences and health research fields through high-throughput centres across Europe. It is also building a database of all screening results, assay protocols, chemical information, and compounds designed and donated by European chemists.

Initial efforts have focused on outlining a legal and governance structure for the future research infrastructure and refining the concept with the support of various stakeholders. This has also involved outlining standards, and detailing portfolios of assay technologies and services, as well as investigating financial requirements and funding sources.

The preparatory phase project brings together a multitude of academic groups from 16 countries, integrating the unique individual biological, chemical and technological expertise available in these groups. An open access policy has been adopted to support maximal data dissemination and publication, with the same rules for users from academia and industry.

A prerequisite for the successful construction and operation of a research infrastructure is well-trained staff, including scientists, engineers and technicians. EU-OPENSCREEN has contributed to the training of students, postdoctoral scientists and principal investigators by providing special introductory courses in high-throughput screening and assay development.

Once operational, the distributed infrastructure EU-OPENSCREEN will develop novel research tools for all fields of the life sciences. These chemical tools complement other genetic and molecular biology methods and enable researchers to investigate the molecular mechanisms of physiological and pathological processes. Thus, the EU-OPENSCREEN network is expected to increase medical research knowledge in concrete ways, from compounds that inhibit tumour growth to those that boost antibiotic or antiviral activity. The benefits of such an infrastructure in the years to come could reach beyond the scope of health care to include agriculture, the food industry and environment management.