Chemical Biology Consortium Sweden Five Years on – Research Highlights
Annika Jenmalm Jensen,
Consortium Director, CBCS Director, LCBKI,
Karolinska Institutet
Chemical Biology Consortium Sweden (CBCS) was established in 2010 as a government-funded, non-profit strategic resource for academic researchers across Sweden. The organization coordinates, and makes available, a powerful academic framework of infrastructures for the discovery, development and utilization of small-molecules and molecular tools for life-science application. The development of high-quality chemical tools requires expertise and instrumentation spanning the fields of molecular biology, biochemistry, biophysics, cell biology, organic/medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, profiling of compounds, analytical chemistry, computational chemistry and informatics. CBCS has consolidated all these chemical biology disciplines in an open access platform In more detail CBCS comprises a the following assets and capacities: (i) an exclusive compound collection (200,000 small molecules, with a mix of commercially unavailable and unique compounds), (ii) compound storage and handling, work station-based screening facilities (liquid-handling robotics, plate sealers/readers and imagers), (iii) state-of-the-art chemistry facilities and (iv) a an ADME and pharmaceutical profiling facility. Essential is also the interdisciplinary competences of the CBCS staff, of which the majority have an extensive industrial background. CBCS is continuously engaged in a large number of collaborative projects with users from all major universities in Sweden, and has completed almost 100 projects since 2010 that have resulted in over 100 publications, 10 patents and 4 spin-off companies. Importantly CBCS have also been involved in the development of novel, powerful methods applicable for chemical biology and drug discovery. A summary of CBCS working model and some of the research highlights will be presented.
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