Initiative for a
European Research Infrastructure of Open
Screening Platforms for Chemical Biology
www.eu-openscreen.eu
Partners of preparatory phase project
EU-OPENSCREEN builds on national networks in 14 European countries.
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NOR-OPENSCREEN
Swedish Chemical Biology Consortium
Drug Discovery and Chemical Biology
network Finnland
Danish Chemical Biology Initiative
Dutch Chemical Library Program
ChemBioNet Germany
POL-OPENSCREEN
CZ-OPENSCREEN and Czech ChemGen
Austrian PLACEBO
Spanish ChemBioBank
French Chimiothèque Nationale, Réseau
Nationale de Criblage, FR-OPENSCREEN
Romanian Chemical Biology Net
Flemish Network on Chemical Biology
Collezione Nazionale dei Composti Chimici e
Centro Screening
Current partners
Associated members
Coordination Centre at FMP Berlin
Infrastructures for the
European Research Area
Chemical Biology
Investigation of biological systems using chemical tools
IQPC
Drug Discovery Partnerships
13/04/2015
Page 3
February3 2013
Infrastructures for the
European Research Area
Biological &
Medical
Sciences
Physics
Understanding the
principles of life
“Modern research in all scientific fields
requires expensive instruments and
resources, and is characterised by a
continuous interplay between new scientific
challenges and our technical responses to
them.“ (ESFRI report)
Astronomy
Social Sciences
Information
Technology
Infrastructures for the
European Research Area
European Strategy Forum on Research
Infrastructures (ESFRI)
 Set up in 2002 by the Competitiveness Council.
 Meeting of Senior Representatives for informal consultations
on strategic issues related to research infrastructures (RI).
 Independent from the European Commission.
 2004: Mandate to develop a European Strategic Roadmap
for Research Infrastructures
- to describe the needs for the next 10 to 20 years
- to identify vital new European research infrastructures.
ESFRI Roadmap
 Published in October 2006, updated in 2008 and 2010.
 Will be used to facilitate decision-making by member
states and EC.
 Will not prioritise or decide on funding and locations.
 Four areas: Physical Sciences and Engineering (PSE),
Biological and Medical Sciences (BMS), Social Sciences
and Humanities (SSH), Environment (ENV).
 Total: 48 ESFRI infrastructures.
ESFRI BMS – Fields of Activity
Biological
Sciences
Biological Resources &
Production Systems
Medical Sciences
Bioinformatics
Bio Banking & Molecular Resources
Functional Genomics in the Mouse
Marine Biology
Structural Biology
Clinical
Research
Translational Medicine
High Security
Laboratories
Chemical Biology (EU-OPENSCREEN)
Imaging
Systems Biology
Ecosystems
13/04/2015
Microbial Resources
7
ESFRI BMS – Fields of Activity
Towards supporting an
innovation chain without gaps
 The EU-OPENSCREEN database
will be linked to other biological
databases through ELIXIR:
BioMedBridges
 Compounds with potential as drug
candidates can be further
developed through EATRIS and
ECRIN
MIRRI
ANAEE
ISBE
 Cell-lines and animal models for
bioprofiling of compounds are
available through BBMRI and
INFRAFRONTIER (BMS-RI)
support
 Natural products from MIRRI and
EMBRC.
EU-OPENSCREEN’s Mission
A pan-European infrastructure to...
accelerate the discovery of biologically active substances in all areas of
the life sciences
facilitate transnational access to the most advanced technologies,
chemical and biological resources, knowledge and expertise
advance the elucidation of the molecular mechanisms of complex
biological processes
increase knowledge on the bio-activities of chemical substances, as
well as the responses of biological systems to these substances
promote the availability of safe and efficacious chemical products for
unmet needs in medicine, nutrition, agriculture, environment
THE PREPARATORY PHASE
PROJECT
WP6
MGT
Support
Team
Physical infrastructure
WP1
Management and coordination
Steering Committee
Governance
structure
WP7
WP8
Financial plan
IPR issues
WP9
Chemical
Resources
WP11
WP12
Technology
Resources
Chem&
BioInformatics
WP10
Biology
Resources
WP2
Standardisation
WP3
WP4
Training and
education
Dissemination
and outreach
WP5
Strategy
Advisory
Board
Advisory Board
Prof. Dr. Dr. Ernst Rietschel, former president of the Leibniz Association of
Research centres (WGL), now acatech - National Academy of Science
and Engineering (technology advisor for the German federal government)
Prof. Dr. Ferran Sanz, Director of GRIB (Research Group in Biomedical
Informatics) at IMIM (Municipal Institute for Medical Research) in
Barcelona. He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the
Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI).
Prof Dr. Serge Braun, scientific director of the Association Francaise contre
les Myopathies (AFM)
Dr. Steve Rees, VP of Screening Sciences, AstraZeneca (AZ)
Expert Groups
Chemical Diversity Group (WP9) chaired by Dr. Michael
Foley, Broad Institute, USA
Innovative Target & Assay Group (WP10) chaired by Sir
Philip Cohen, UK
Industrial Advisory Group (WP5) chaired by Dr. Philip
Gribbon, European ScreeningPort; members: J. Everett (f.
Pfizer), J. Kihlberg (Univ. Uppsala, former AZ), T. Langer
(Prestwick), H-U. Stilz (SA)
EU-OPENSCREEN Strategy Group (WP5) chaired by Dr.
James Inglese, Chemical Genomics Centre, NIH, USA
OBJECTIVES
EU-OPENSCREEN´s objective is the development of novel research
‘tool’ compounds for all fields of the Life Sciences.
 Tool compounds enable researchers to investigate molecular mechanisms of physiological
and pathological processes, many of which can only be studied with these chemical ‘tools’

Chemical tools complement methods of molecular biology, such as mutagenesis or RNA
interference

All generated tools and data are made publically available to the scientific community
Chemical keys for life’s locks
Chemical compounds, such as this
small molecule, can bind to cellular
structures (e.g. proteins) and modulate
their functions.
A Chemical Biology Infrastructure
Serving research in all Life Sciences
Food
Ecology
Veterinary Medicine
Medicine
Chemical
Biology
Basic Research
Pest Control
Service Portfolio
EU-OPENSCREEN will provide services to support the development of
tool compounds at all stages
LAYOUT OF RI
EU-OPENSCREEN integrates Europe´s expert resources and facilities into its
unique concept of a knowledge-creating Chemical Biology Centre and supports
all stages of tool development projects in an RI ‘open’ for external researchers.
Chemistry
Compounds
Biology
meets
Assays & Targets
User
Activity
profiles
User
EU-OPENSCREEN-ERIC
Compound Collection
Database
Project Management
Training & Education
Service contracts
Partner Sites
Screening Technology
Chemistry Services
Compound Profiling
Compound Management
Tool
compounds
UNIQUE ERIC ELEMENTS
The European Chemical Biology Library ECBL will
- be designed and built on the expert knowledge of European chemists
- cover unbiased chemical diversity with an expected size of 200k to 300k
compounds
- be driven by the prospect of bioactivity, intellectual curiosity, uniqueness,
and the goal of generating knowledge (not necessarily new chemical
entities, NCEs)
- be composed to optimally serve the community and its needs; will contain
selections from academic chemistry labs, commercial collections, known
drugs, natural products, environmentals, etc.
- be quality controlled by approved standard method (LC-MS)
- be fully profiled with a set of basic properties (biophysical, cellular
cytotoxicity, antimicrobial)
- be systematically profiled against hundreds of assays conducted by the
network of screening centres.
UNIQUE EUROPEAN ASSETS
The European Chemical Biology Database (ECBD) will be a web portal
with powerful search and analysis capabilities:
• contains validated output from screening centres in a public as well as prerelease environment.
• supports curation, annotation and organization of data + metadata.
• data deposition with flexible privacy model for rapid and safe dissemination
and exploitation. Optional hold period of 18 months for data publication.
• The broadest possible use of data through public accessibility and
dissemination. Public data also freely available for complete download,
redistribution.
• High standards of security and traceability of IP (citable indexing of data
points (EUOS, DOI or URL). Links to originator labs for primary raw
unprocessed data.
• Links to SAR (e.g. ChEMBL), Chemical Structure (e.g. PubChem), and
Target (e.g. UniProt) resources. Links established with new NIH-funded
BARD resource.
Project Selection
Projects are evaluated by external reviewers and implemented
according to milestones along a defined timeline.
Submission of
project
proposal
(users from
member and
non-member
countries)
Project
selection
(external
review)
Phase I:
assay
adaptation
and
highthroughput
screening
Project
selection for
Phase II
Phase II:
chemical
optimisation
TOOL
COMPOUND
Validated chemical
structure
Extensive basic Bioprofile
Bioactivity data from
hundreds of assays
BUDGET (LIMITED CAPACITY)
The required minimum budget for EU-OPENSCREEN is modest and
shared between member countries.
Service site upgrades
National funding
Central costs
Project costs
(6 years)
(6 years)
Shared funding
~ 27 m €
(e.g. GDP-share)
Shared funding
~ 30 m €
(e.g. GDP-share,
cost ceiling)
Upgrade 1
45 m€ already
invested
Upgrade 2
Office
Upgrade 3
Upgrade 4
Upgrade 5
ECBL
ECBD
Training
Shared funding of
Member countries
BUDGET (FULL CAPACITY)
The required minimum budget for EU-OPENSCREEN is modest and
shared between member countries.
Project costs
(6 years)
Diverse
funding
sources
~ 60 m€
Users
(research grants, in
addition to EU-grants)
Service site upgrades
Central costs
(6 years)
National funding
Shared funding
~ 27 M €
(e.g. GDP-share)
Upgrade 1
45 m€ already
invested
EU-funding to users
(research grants)
EU-funding to
EU-OPENSCREEN
Upgrade 2
Office
Upgrade 3
Upgrade 4
Upgrade 5
ECBL
ECBD
Training
Shared funding of
Member countries
ADDED VALUE
 EU-OPENSCREEN´s ‘open’ character: large pool of external biologists
and chemists provide wide range of expertise, assays and diverse
compounds.
Compounds
H
FR French compound it
UK
FR
Targets
Targets
UK
DE
ES
DE
Spanish target
Compounds
ES
IT
IT
x
Without EU-OPENSCREEN:
Limited chance of finding a hit against a
target from local or
national compound collections
x
With EU-OPENSCREEN:
European Scale Advantage: Exponential
increase of the likelihood of finding a hit against
a target from a national compound collection
ADDED VALUE
 EU-OPENSCREEN´s ‘open’ character: large pool of external biologists
and chemists provide wide range of expertise, assays and diverse
compounds.
UK
DE
ES
IT
x
Without EU-OPENSCREEN:
Limited chance of finding a hit against a
target from local or
national compound collections
DE
Spanish target
FR
Compounds
H
FR French compound it
UK
Targets
Targets
Compounds
ES
IT
x
With EU-OPENSCREEN:
European Scale Advantage: Exponential
increase of the likelihood of finding a hit against
a target from a national compound collection
IMPACT ON SCIENCE
In the Life Sciences, large-scale open-access research consortia have
already proven fundamental to breakthroughs in their fields.
Human Genome
Organisation
Structural Genomics
Consortium
EU-OPENSCREEN
Output
Sequence data of
human genomes
Human protein
structures
Novel tool compounds
for LifeSciences
Model
Not-for-profit
Not-for-profit
Not-for-profit
Data policy
Open-access
Open-access
Open-access
Impact
Advancing our understanding
Advancing our understanding Advancing our understanding
of biological processes.
of biological processes.
of biological processes.
New approaches to
New approaches to disease
New druggable targets for
disease treatment, diagnosis,
treatment
disease treatment
prevention
Weigelt (2009): “The case for open-access chemical biology. A strategy for pre-competitive medicinal chemistry to promote drug discovery.” EMBO Rep. 10: 941–945
IMPACT ON DRUG DISCOVERY
Public Sector Research Institutions (PSRI) contribute particularly to new NCEs and new indications.
Stevens, A.J. et al., 2011, N ENGL J MED 364:535-541.
TIMELINE
Now in the 3rd year of its Preparatory Phase, EU-OPENSCREEN will
initiate construction and operation in 2014-2015.
Roadmap
2008
Preparation
11/201010/2013
Interim
11/201310/2014
Construction
11/201410/2015
Operation
From
11/2015
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ESFRI Roadmap: ESFRI considers EU-OPENSCREEN as vital to the
excellence of research and innovation in Europe and included
it on the “European Roadmap of Research Infrastructures”.
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Preparatory Phase (3 years): Preparation of a business plan
describing in detail the mode of construction and operation.
MoU signed. EU funding: 3.7 M€.
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Interim Phase (1-1.5 years): ERIC application and approval. Institutional funding.
•
Construction Phase (1 year): Construction of infrastructure (existing and new sites).
National funding.
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Operation Phase: Active infrastructure with access for researchers. Diverse funding sources.
CURRENT STATUS
AND NEXT STEPS
EU-OPENSCREEN was included on several national roadmaps and is
now initiating negotiations with governments and funding
organisations.
•
EU-OPENSCREEN in 3rd year of Preparatory Phase:
Challenge before Construction and Operation
Phases is the securing of (financial) commitment of
member countries
•
Timelines of member countries vary: Transition
Committee for the time between the end of the
Preparatory Phase and the start of the
Construction and Operation Phases will be formed
•
EU-OPENSCREEN included on several national
Roadmaps
•
MoU document , financial plan, funding strategy,
draft ERIC statutes and draft Business Plan
already available
On national Roadmap  start negotiations
Decision expected in 2013
EU-OPENSCREEN – Executive Summary
Page 27
August 2013
Next Project & Stakeholder Meeting
Tuesday, 19 Nov – Project Meeting
09:00-13:00 General Assembly meeting (project
participants)
14:30-18:00 EU-OPENSCREEN outreach and
synergies (invited guests) Interactions
with representatives of other ESFRI
infrastructures, JPI's and IMI´s
European Lead Factory
19:30
EU-OPENSCREEN networking dinner
Wednesday, 20 Nov – Stakeholder Meeting
09:30-16:00 EU-OPENSCREEN Science Day
(open)
- 3 presentations from EUOPENSCREEN
- 6 reports on flagship projects
13:00-16:00 Transition Committee Meeting (closed)
13/04/2015
Oslo
Norway
28
THE TEAM
Thank you for your attention
www.eu-openscreen.eu