Pursuant to the agreement, screening and hit-to-lead chemistry will take place in the Broad’s Chemical Biology Platform and AstraZeneca will optimize, develop and commercialize potential compounds from identified, high-quality leads.
AstraZeneca Infection Innovative Medicines Unit head and vice president Dr. Manos Perros said the new and collaborative approaches between the private and public sectors will help speed the discovery and development of new treatments, particularly for antibiotic-resistant infections.
"Through this collaboration we have already identified several new potential projects to pursue," Dr. Perros added.
Under the two-year collaboration, the two organizations will bring expertise in bacterial genomics and biochemistry with a collection (library) of chemical compounds and chemical screening capabilities.
The chemical library, created at the Broad Institute, is designed to contain molecular shapes and structures that can hit the challenging biological targets and comprises 100,000 customized molecules known as Diversity-Oriented Synthesis compounds.