Astex

Astex therapeutic and technology areas of interest

Astex are looking for novel hypotheses, technologies and targets in the following areas:

• Neurodegeneration
• Oncology
• Fragment-based drug discovery (technology platforms including X-ray crystallography, biophysics, fragment library design and chemical synthesis)

Astex is a small, local drug discovery company based in Cambridge. For the last 15 years they have pioneered a technique referred to as Fragment-based drug discovery (FBDD) and have used this to generate small molecule drug candidates that have been progressed into clinical trials by Astex and their collaborators. FBDD is now widely recognized to be a successful technology for hard-targets including protein-protein interactions.  Astex has a successful history of drug discovery collaborations with academics and the pharmaceutical industry within the UK and internationally. The nature of Astex academic partnerships is tailored to meet the specific needs of individual projects.
 

Types of academic partnerships with Astex

For example:

• Astex scientists can offer fragment-based drug discovery expertise and oncology and neurodegeneration knowledge to academic scientists
• Academic scientists may be interested in Astex sustaining innovation post-doctoral fellowships which they would be happy to discuss with academics or PhD students

Astex has >30 collaborations with academic scientists around the world and is keen to establish research collaborations with scientists in Cambridge.
 

Taking a flexible approach to collaboration

As part of the Milner Therapeutics Consortium, these collaborations can be facilitated through match-making with individual scientists or meetings and workshops between groups of scientists working in relevant areas. For more information please contact Kathryn.Chapman@milner.cam.ac.uk.