Myeloma UK and the Structural Genomics Consortium link up to discover new drug targets for myeloma

Published: 27-Jan-2016

The open-access collaboration will make all reagents and knowledge available to pharma, biotech and academic research groups


Myeloma UK, a non-profit organisation and resource for those seeking information about the treatment and management of myeloma, based in Edinburgh, Scotland, and the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) have entered into an open-access research partnership to discover and characterise novel drug targets for myeloma using structural biology and chemical proteomics.

In this first collaboration of its kind in Europe, the partners have agreed not to file for patents on any of the research and to make all reagents and knowledge available to the wider research community, including pharmaceutical, biotech, and academic research groups.

As part of the collaboration, Myeloma UK will support scientists at the SGC to generate biology data and open access research tools to explore potential drug targets, as well as link Myeloma UK clinical and pre-clinical experts into the SGC’s open access network. The project reinforces the early-stage component of the Myeloma UK research pipeline, which extends into Phase II/b clinical trials.

Myeloma UK Chief Executive Eric Low said: 'We are absolutely driven by our desire to enable discoveries that will put in place innovative routes to significantly improve outcomes in myeloma and ultimately find a cure – but we want to do it faster and more efficiently than ever before. Our entire business model at Myeloma UK is designed to accelerate the research that is most likely to result in patient benefit.'

Aled Edwards, CEO of the SGC, added: 'We applaud Myeloma UK’s strategic decision to enforce unrestricted sharing of research tools and results which will surely accelerate the understanding of underlying disease biology.

'By combining Myeloma UK’s own data with the outputs from our other genetic studies supported by Genome Canada, Wellcome Trust and EU’s Innovative Medicines Initiatives, we hope to identify and enable discovery of novel targets for multiple myeloma.'

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