As a charity, we want to ensure that promising science is developed and can make a difference to patients’ lives. To achieve this we have invested heavily in our drug discovery and diagnostics development centres.
Our Centre for Therapeutics Discovery (CTD) works on drug discovery projects using early-stage academic research for conditions where there is a clear need for new treatments.
Through our Call for Targets programme we are looking to support and develop promising new therapeutic targets. By collaborating with our drug discovery labs you gain access to the expertise, facilities and resources needed to develop your research in a commercial environment. We have a long history of developing therapeutic molecules and our work has contributed to four antibody drugs that have reached the market and are currently treating patients.
We are now offering £100,000 Awards to each successful Principal Investigator (PI). Read about our application process.
The award will be processed through the PI’s university or institution and can be spent at the discretion of the PI under the T&C of their university/institution. We review proposals three times a year and projects are selected by a panel of drug discovery experts. LifeArc Awards will be made after a three step process:
- Successful review of the project – initial triage followed by a full review
- A signed collaboration agreement with host institution or university
- Completion of a feasibility milestone in the LifeArc labs which will be identified during review
We accept/review applications on a rolling basis – get in touch to find out more
What we’re looking for
We are looking for projects that show:
- Novel therapeutic targets in any disease area with a current unmet medical need
- New approaches to modulating a known disease target
- Targets that are amenable to a small molecule or antibody therapeutic approach, for example receptors, secreted proteins, enzymes and ion channels
- Strong evidence linking the target to human disease, for example genetic or expression data
- Evidence from cellular or animal model systems showing that modulation of the target has a therapeutically relevant effect
- Disease biology expertise from the collaborating academics, such as access to enabling assays, reagents and disease models
Read about our application process
Find out more and apply
If you are interested in finding out more about our Call for Targets programme and the LifeArc Award, please get in touch with Kevin Buchan, Derek Sheader or Roberto Zanchi on +44 (0) 207 391 2826