On 29 and 30 October, Chris Abell, Professor of Biological Chemistry at the University of Cambridge, will visit the CIQUS, where He will give two lectures.The first one that will be held on Monday 29th at the CIQUS´ conference room at 12 a.m., will focus on a new strategy in drug discovery of great impact on the pharmaceutical industry entitled “Fragment-based approaches in chemical biology and drug discovery”.
The second one, that will take place on March 30th at 10 a.m., will provide an overview on his extensive and successful experience as “The reluctant entrepreneur - spinning out of Chemistry”.
Prof. Abell is recognised worldwide for the use of a novel approach to drug design, in which small molecules discovered by screening are adequate and rationally modified to achieve maximum efficiency. His major focus is on the use of fragment-based approaches to find inhibitors of enzymes from M. tuberculosis and small molecules that disrupt protein-protein interactions.
This strategy is exploited by Astex Therapeutics,one of the most successful spin-out companies of Cambridge (United Kingdom) and co-founded by Abell in 1999. Astex has to date secured in the region of £60 million in funding, and has pharmaceutical company deals potentially worth over £645 million in milestone & royalty revenue. Since 2011, Astex Pharmaceuticals has been on the Nasdaq and presently has 7 compounds in clinical trials.
Abell is also a pioneer in the development of a new platform for experimental science, the microdroplets. This technology is exploited by the spin-out company, also based in Cambridge, Sphere Fluidics, exco-funded by Abell in 2010. This technology enables: to study the mechanism of cancer cell resistance to chemotherapy, generation of new enzymes and identification of novel microbial strains, amount other applications.
Prof. Abell is also founding director of Cambridge Enterprise, a wholly owned subsidiary of the University of Cambridge created in 2006 to manage the commercialization of scientific discoveries from the University of Cambridge. This company provides technology transfer, consulting and pre-seed and seed stage investment for members of the University of Cambridge and the Babraham Institute, to help commercialise innovative research through the creation of new ventures.
Information provided by:
Concepción González-Bello
Lecturer on Organic Chemistry, CIQUS
concepcion.gonzalez.bello [at] usc.es