Drug Discovery and Development Platform
Units of the DDD Platform
- ADME of Therapeutics
- Biochemical and Cellular Assay
- Biophysical Screening and Characterization
- Human Antibody Therapeutics
- In Vitro and Systems Pharmacology
- Medicinal Chemistry – Hit2Lead
- Medicinal Chemistry – Lead Identification
- Protein Expression and Characterization
- Target Product Profiling & Drug Safety Assessment
- OligoNova Hub (new unit! Read more here)
What do we offer?
Check out the video where Marika Nestor talks about her experience with our platform:
The SciLifeLab Drug Discovery and Development (DDD) platform offers integrated drug discovery efforts to the Swedish academic research community. We offer industry-standard infrastructure, expertise, and strategic support for technology development or to help progress projects towards a preclinical proof-of-concept. We work with small molecules, human antibodies, and new modality therapeutics. There are three ways to interact with us:
| DDDPROGRAM | DDDCOLLABORATIVE | DDDSERVICE |
| Drug development project | Access to resources/instruments/ technologies at DDD | Access to spare resources/ instruments at DDD |
Services are offered in the following areas:
- Up to 80 hour free support to prepare your project as a drug discovery project, including an initial drug target product profile, and a lead generation/antibody selection strategy with progression plans
- In collaboration with Chemical Biology Consortium Sweden, logistic solutions and data management for sharing large numbers of compounds (SciLifeLab compound collection)/antibodies.
- In collaboration with Chemical and Pharmaceutical Toxicology at RISE (Södertälje), projects are evaluated for target safety concerns and approved projects are offered chemical toxicity support (in silico profiling of small molecules), immunotoxicity support (antibodies) and safety support in the design of in vivo studies.
- Protein production for assay development
- Identification of binders from our IP free phage display library of human antibodies
- Biochemical and cellular screening, both at single concentration in large compound libraries and to generate dose-response data for iterative chemistry
- Medicinal synthetic and computational chemistry
- Analysis of drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics data for compounds and antibodies
- Advanced analysis of in vitro pharmacology and systems pharmacology of compounds and antibodies
- Biophysical identification of binding partners (small molecules or proteins), screening of chemical libraries and characterization of interactions between hits/leads and their targets, using a range of time-resolved and structure-based biophysical methods
Importantly, the researcher/customer retains all rights and ownership during this process.
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Achievements and Testimonials
“We couldn’t have done this project without SciLifeLab. To begin with, we didn’t even know which things we didn’t know, so to speak. Nor did we have the funds to be able to do it ourselves. The vast competence of the DDD platform scientists has been invaluable to us.”
Olle Hernell (Umeå University)
“To have access to the expertise and techniques provided by the DDD was critical for us in order to be able to advance our research.”
Tina Sarén (Uppsala University)
Recent publications
A paper titled “An Adaptable Antibody-Based Platform for Flexible Synthetic Peptide Delivery Built on Agonistic CD40 Antibodies” was recently published in Advanced Therapeutics, with many contributors from the DDD Platform. This work was the result of a successful project owned by Sara Mangsbo and her colleagues, which made an exit in 2021.
Other recent papers of interest:
Sarén, T., Saronio, G., Marti Torrell, P. et al. Complementarity-determining region clustering may cause CAR-T cell dysfunction. Nat Commun 14, 4732 (2023).
Luttens, A., Gullberg, H., Abdurakhmanov, E., et al. Ultralarge Virtual Screening Identifies SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease Inhibitors with Broad-Spectrum Activity against Coronaviruses. JACS 144, 7 (2022).
Featured project
Teamwork and cross-disciplinary collaborations were key for Drug Discovery and Development Platform exit project
On November 7, 2023, we celebrated the commercial exit of Jens Carlsson’s project, which used virtual screening, fragment screening, and fast make-test-analyze cycles of compound optimization for the discovery and lead generation of SARS-CoV2 Mpro inhibitors. Read the SciLifeLab news article here.
Recent developments at the DDDP
With its mission to support researchers in developing prototypes for new drugs, the DDD platform is focused on providing state-of-the-art drug discovery technologies to scientists across the country. During the last couple of years, the platform has developed DNA-coded chemical libraries that make it easier to find relevant starting points for small molecule drug discovery. In 2020, the platform launched its third library, containing over one million unique DNA-coded drug-like substances. Currently used for COVID-19 projects, the library will be made available for academic researchers nationwide in 2021.
The platform also recently established a new methodology for developing PROTACs ® (Proteolysis targeting chimera), a new kind of drug which breaks down target proteins instead of inhibiting their functions. In 2020, the platform’s researchers – in close collaboration with scientists at Karolinska Institutet, Uppsala University and Recipharm AB – showed the first functional degrader to be produced in Swedish academia. Now, the aim is to make this technology available to users in early 2022.
In 2020, the activities at the platform were in many ways affected by the corona pandemic, but despite restrictions, the platform managed to carry out most of its operations as planned. During the year, it added three new academic projects to its portfolio, and carried out two successful exits; one of which, a project on developing a new kind of cell therapy (CAR-T) for glioblastoma, was advanced into a private company that will continue its development.
The platform also launched two research projects on COVID-19 – one aiming to identify inhibitors of a viral protease essential to the growth of the virus, and one where antibodies with high-binding strength to the virus surface protein have been identified.
The DDD platform has until recently focused on small molecules and protein drugs; a recent addition is oligonucleotides. Oligonucleotide drugs have a potentially faster development compared to other drug types. The OligoNova Hub is based in Gothenburg and will become part of SciLifeLab’s DDD platform.
”This endeavour enables the DDD platform to take on new kinds of projects for diseases with unmet medical needs, and focus on different therapies. It also creates several potential synergies, for instance, a possibility to combine DDD’s unique antibody expertise with oligonucleotide drugs to facilitate delivery to the correct cell type”, says Kristian Sandberg, Co-Director of the platform.
“The OligoNova Hub will establish a vibrant center based on scientific excellence for these new medicines, creating a unique opportunity for SciLifeLab to work on new drugs together with the life science community in Sweden. We look forward to working with the Wallenberg Centre for Molecular and Translational Medicine, to make these technologies available to researchers across the country”, he continues.
Current projects
We are currently running 19 drug discovery projects at the DDD platform: antibody, small molecule, and technology development projects. The DDD Platform strives to stay up to date with current drug discovery techniques used in the pharmaceutical industry.
Small molecule projects
Antibody projects
Oligonucleotide projects
Recent project exits
| Year | Principal Investigator | Affiliation | Therapeutic area | Project Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Jens Carlsson | Uppsala University | Infectious Diseases | Small Molecule |
| 2023 | Thoas Fioretos | Lund University | Oncology | Antibody |
| 2022 | Marika Nestor | Uppsala University | Oncology | Antibody |
| 2021 | Thomas Helleday | Karolinska Institute | Oncology | Small Molecule |
| 2021 | Maréne Landström | Umeå University | Oncology | Antibody |
| 2021 | Sara Mangsbo | Uppsala University | Oncology | New Modalities |
| 2020 | Mattias Hallberg | Uppsala University | Neuroscience | Small Molecule |
| 2020 | Magnus Essand | Uppsala University | Oncology | New Modalities |
| 2019 | Susanne Lindqvist | Umeå University | Autoimmune Diseases | Antibody |
| 2019 | Sonia Lain | Karolinska Institute | Oncology | Small Molecule |
| 2018 | Margit Mahlapuu | Gothenburg University | Metabolic Disorders | Small Molecule |
| 2018 | Per Almqvist | Karolinska Institute | Neuroscience | New Modalities |
| 2017 | Maria Eriksdotter | Karolinska Institute | Neuroscience | Small Molecule |
| 2016 | Mårten Fryknäs | Uppsala University | Oncology | Small Molecule |
| 2016 | Johan Flygare | Linköping University | Blood Disorders | Small Molecule |
| 2016 | Thomas Helleday | Karolinska Institute | Oncology | Small Molecule |
Recent project exit
What a year 2021 has been for our platform! We have celebrated the exits of three very successful projects, the latest of which is Thomas Helleday’s project on MTHFD2 inhibitors. The candidate drug will be further developed in the recently started company One-carbon Therapeutics AB. Read the article here.
Featured Project
Activation of potassium channels
“SciLifeLab Drug Discovery & Development project owner and SciLifeLab board member Professor Fredrik Elinder was interviewed in the ionchannellibrary. He outlines the challenge of undertaking and funding drug discovery efforts in academia, the need for high-throughput ion channel measurements, and ultramarathons – all in one place.
News archive
Interested in DDDPs past new articles and achievements? Below are links to older news articles involving the work that is done at our unit.
- Susanne Lindquist’s project (exited DDDP 2019) and further developments of this drug candidate by Lipum AB
- CAR-T project by the Magnus Essand lab (exit 2020) and its further development by Elicera Therapeutics
- Collaboration with Medivir AB in the Nevermore Covid project in 2020
- Sara Mangsbo’s project exit (2021) and its further development by Strike Pharma
- Maréne Landström’s project exit (2021) on an anti-cancer antibody drug candidate