Our Location
Our Newhouse site is close to Glasgow (16 miles) and Edinburgh (30 miles), with good transport links and 3 international airports within 40 miles.
Our Integrated Drug Discovery Capabilities
Our Integrated Drug Discovery team is housed in purpose-built biology and chemistry labs. The team has access to advanced infrastructure and equipment.
Our Biosciences team can develop de novo assays and screen against all major target families (enzymes, GPCRs, ion channels, protein-protein interactions, nuclear receptors…) using all major screening formats (Fluorescence Intensity, FP/Anisotropy, TR-FRET, HTRF, Absorbance, Luminescence, Alphascreen…). We have recent experience of challenging target classes such as splicing factors and chaperones.
Key biosciences equipment on-site includes:
- Filter based multi-label plate readers: PerkinElmer EnVision, BMG Pherastar
- Monochromator multi-label plate reader: PerkinElmer EnSpire – wavelength scanning, temperature control
- FLIPR Tetra: High Throughput Kinetic cellular screening, Fluorescence and Luminescence
- Microscale Thermophoresis (Monolith® NT.Automated)
- Thermal Shift/Differential Scanning Fluorimetry
- Label-free cellular screening (Dynamic Mass Redistribution/Corning Epic®)
- Liquid Handling capabilities. Integrated HTS platform capable of screening >150 plates per day
- Roylan Development StoragePod® maintaining plates in dry/low O2 atmosphere and the drying of DMSO solutions post screening
- Secure Data Analysis in an industry standard, secure database
Our Medicinal Chemistry team have worked on a broad range of target classes including Enzymes (Kinases, Proteases, Hydrolases, Dehydrogenases, Demethylases, DUBs), Ion Channels, GPCRs, Nuclear Receptors, Protein-Protein interactions and Allosteric modulators.
Synthetic chemistry capabilities include multi-step synthesis of complex molecules, asymmetric synthesis, route design, building block synthesis, parallel synthesis of lead-like libraries, analytical standards and reference molecules, microwave synthesis and flow synthesis.
Key chemistry equipment on-site includes:
- NMR: Bruker Avance III 400 MHz NMR with multinuclear probe and 120-position carousel sample changer
- LCMS: Agilent (x2) Fast Gradient analytical LCMS systems with CTC autosamplers capable of both plate and vial based sampling
- SFC: Waters and Berger analytical/semi-prep SFC systems capable of achiral/chiral method development and separation with automated sample management
- HPLC Purification: Waters (x2) fully automated semi-prep HPLC systems with diode array detection
- Flash Chromatography: Biotage (x4) Isolera automated purification systems with either dual wavelength or diode array detection
- Evaporation: Genevac (x2) centrifuges with plate, vial and tube capability
- Microwave Assisted Synthesis: Biotage (x2) Initiators with up to 60-sample capacity, scale from 0.5 – 20 mL
- Hydrogenation: Thales Nano H-Cube
- Flow synthesis: Uniqsis Flowsyn Multi-X with high and low temperature capability
- Electrochemistry: ElectraSyn 2.0
- Photochemistry: Merck Photoreactor M1
- Parallel Synthesis: Extensive array of parallel synthesis equipment
Our team also has access to our in-house, IP-free library of 125,000 compounds (via Compound Cloud), which is available for use in your drug discovery projects.
Our Compound Management Capabilities
The BioAscent Automated Compound Store has three individually housed, environmentally controlled -20°C stores for compound solutions, and a dedicated Kardex powder store.
Our facility offers a compound logistics platform which is flexible and scalable; from workstations for automated solubilisation of samples, to full robotic systems which reformat and replicate plates in 96, 384 and 1536-well plate formats, in a dry and controlled atmosphere to avoid DMSO water capture and preserve the quality of the compound in solution.
We can store compounds in a range of plate formats, 2D Matrix tubes and REMP Storage Microtube Technology.
Solubilized samples can be divided into multiple aliquots in individual REMP microtubes, each containing just the right volume for single use, and thawed once just before use in an assay. The microtubes are individually sealed and can be selected straight into a delivery rack when needed using the store’s rapid robotic cherry picking capability.
This means that cherry picking occurs within the environmentally controlled storage system, virtually eliminating the risk of sample degradation arising from multiple freeze/thaw cycles and providing the flexibility of random, rapid and individual selection and arrangement of only needed samples – when they are needed.
Using the single use tube storage technology reduces wastage of compounds, eliminates the need to store locally in sub-optimal conditions, and ensures the integrity and quality of the compounds being tested.
Our Systems for Securing your Collections
Our facility is constructed to provide the maximum protection possible for valuable collections, with a geographic location selected for its lack of extreme weather conditions and earthquakes. There is redundancy designed into the cooling systems, and extensive fire protection with the three REMP liquid stores, and Kardex powder store housed in four independent fire-protected enclosures, each fitted with fire extinguishing systems (Argonite/FE-13).
Our IT Infrastructure
In addition to secure off site backup provision, the IT infrastructure includes identical servers, located in separate buildings, fitted with fire protection and ventilation systems. Hardware and software are both designed to offer the maximum redundancy to avoid any interruption of operations.
We use Mosaic, from Titian, for our workflow management, inventory tracking and ordering system.
Mosaic is the most widely used software in sample management, giving full control of samples, managing the compound inventory, storage, processing and remote ordering.