The Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge UK, is leading a triple European alliance to find novel ways of fighting a whole battery of diseases.

The alliance is aimed at discovering novel Rhomboid Protease inhibitors as potential drugs to treat infectious, parasitic, oncological, immune and cardiovascular diseases.

Enamine in Kiev is a leading provider of screening compounds, chemical building blocks and discovery services. It will provide the MRC LMB and IOCB with access to its integrated drug discovery capabilities, including molecular modelling, compound library, screening assays, hit finding and characterisation, hit to Lead chemistry and ADMET.

The three parties will jointly own the Intellectual Property resulting from the programme and will seek to partner the small molecule inhibitors generated with pharmaceutical companies for onward clinical development. The collaboration agreement was negotiated by MRC Technology on behalf of MRC LMB.

Dr Matthew Freeman, head of the cell biology division at MRC LMB, said: “We anticipate a very successful relationship with Enamine. This project provides evidence of the ability of our respective research centres to recognise valuable drug discovery models.”

MRC LMB is one of the world’s leading research organisations. Its primary goal is to advance understanding of biological processes at the molecular level – providing the knowledge needed to solve key problems in human health.