NEWHOUSE, UK (20 September 2017): BioAscent Discovery Limited has announced an agreement with Pivot Park Screening Centre (PPSC, Oss, The Netherlands), under which it is managing PPSC’s entire screening collection of over 300,000 compounds. This new library consolidates BioAscent’s position as one of the largest and most efficient outsourced sample management providers in the World. By accessing BioAscent’s infrastructure and technologies, PPSC is able to optimise the use of its compounds and preserve their quality, in addition to saving time during the screening process.
BioAscent’s Newhouse facility offers scalable and highly secure infrastructure, capable of storing over 4 million compounds in solid and liquid formats, and numerous tube and microplate types, from ambient to -20°C. As well as ongoing sample management, BioAscent has extensive reformatting capabilities and has already transferred 233,000 aliquots of DMSO stock solutions from microplates into individual tubes. This additional tube format will enable PPSC to cherry-pick “hit” compounds following primary ultra-high throughput screening and to confirm and validate their activity on the target. PPSC will also be able to undertake follow up assays faster than before. Commenting on the agreement, Mirjam Mol-Arts MD, PPSC’s CEO said: “We want to focus on our core areas of expertise, accelerating drug discovery via ultra-high throughput screening and assay development using our leading-edge infrastructure and in-depth experience. By outsourcing the management of our collection to BioAscent we have been able to benefit from their expertise and specialised equipment. This has helped us optimise the use of our extensive compound collection while preserving its integrity and quality, in turn enabling us to offer our customers an even more effective, flexible and cost-efficient service.”
“We continue to see a significant year-on- year increase in the number of compounds and individual libraries that we manage on behalf of clients in Europe and the US”, said Paul Smith, BioAscent’s CEO. “Pharma and biotech companies outsource their sample management to us because of our high capacity, state-of- the-art facility, and the expertise of our team. They stay with us because of the care we take in managing their collections and the unparalleled service in preparing and distributing their compounds quickly and efficiently.”
For more information on BioAscent’s compound management outsourcing visit:
www.bioascent.com/compoundmanagement
Editors’ Notes
BioAscent Discovery Ltd.
Founded in 2013, BioAscent is the rejuvenated former Merck Sharpe and Dohme (MSD) automated compound management and logistics facility, based within the BioCity Scotland site at Newhouse, Scotland, UK. The company consists of a state-of- the-art facility run by a range of highly skilled management, scientists, and technicians with extensive experience in managing specialist compound libraries. It offers the safe and secure storage of customer compound collections, in addition to formatting and worldwide logistics.
BioAscent was selected as the Centre of Excellence for the compound management activities of the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI)-funded European Lead Factory, providing secure storage and logistics of the 500,000 sample collection to all seven major pharmaceutical company partners. In addition to the management and distribution of sample collections, BioAscent provides access to chemical collections through www.compoundcloud.com, offering a completely customisable ex-pharma compound collection in ready to screen formats. Compound Cloud is also used to promote novel compound collections to the world-wide BioAscent drug discovery network, on behalf of the collection owners.
Pivot Park Screening Centre
With our partners, we accelerate the discovery of new medicines for a healthier society. Pivot Park Screening Centre (PPSC) provides drug discovery services in the field of assay development, lab automation and (ultra) High Throughput Screening ((u)HTS) to find new leads for drug development. PPSC specializes in the screening of large libraries for pharma companies. In addition, PPSC is the central screening site in the European Lead Factory, collaborating with a large number of academia and SME’s. The screening facility includes state-of- the-art robotic systems and an extensive collection of 300,000 high quality drug-like compounds. The open access facilities provide instrumentation for hit-to- lead testing and technology development. Pivot Park Screening Centre is based at Pivot Park in Oss, the Netherlands. For more information please visit www.ppscreeningcentre.com