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The Strathclyde Institute for Drug Research was established in order to build on the existing successes in drug research at the University of Strathclyde. SIDR promotes interdisciplinary collaborations in drug research within the University and stimulates interactions with industry. SIDR identifies early-stage commercial opportunities in drug research, develops them through proof-of-principle stage, and seeks industrial partners for full development.
Since its creation in 1988, SIDR has extensive experience of working with pharmaceutical and biotech companies in Europe, USA and Japan. In its first ten years, SIDR attracted more than £14 million income. About 95% of this is from industrial sources, and SIDR has worked with 41 different companies world-wide. More than 60 internal development projects have been supported and many have gone on to receive external support.
SIDR focuses on developing new research projects that have short or long-term commercial opportunities. SIDR draws on existing fundamental research in different subject areas, develops interactions across disciplines and forms partnerships between university scientists and industry. SIDR organises project teams and provides project management to suit the needs of each client.
SIDR provides industry with a portfolio of drug discovery projects and a wealth of expertise in drug research. Industrial collaborations are performed by academic scientists with the appropriate skills and experience.
SIDR is a virtual organisation, with a small core staff that is expanded as required by contracts with industry. From its early days, the University of Strathclyde has developed a reputation for undertaking industrially and commercially relevant research. This is reflected by a culture of commercial awareness among researchers and enthusiasm for strategic partnerships with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. SIDR draws on the drug research skills of 60 academic staff, and over 200 postdoctoral researchers and technicians in five departments in the Faculty of Science: Bioscience and Biotechnology, Immunology, Pharmaceutical Sciences, Physiology and Pharmacology, and Pure and Applied Chemistry.
SIDRs main areas of research expertise are:
- Cardiovascular
- CNS pharmacology
- Drug delivery systems
- Inflammation
- Cell proliferation
- Natural products
Cardiovascular studies include investigations into pathophysiological mechanisms involving myocardial protectants, anti-hypertensives, restenosis, and pulmonary hypertension.CNS
Research in the CNS is mainly on drugs acting on neuronal ion channels and receptors. Potential therapeutic areas are neurodegenerative diseases, epilepsies, schizophrenia, and adjuncts to anaesthesia.
Expertise in cellular signalling is being combined with exploratory drug discovery aimed at apoptosis, restenosis and cancer.
Studies in inflammatory disease include investigations of cell signalling pathways in target tissues, in design and testing of new molecules for anti-inflammatory activity, and work on immunomodulatory activity. Discovery projects are aimed at inflammatory bowel and skin diseases, asthma and arthritis.
Drug delivery systems are being developed from hydrogels and non-ionic surfactant vesicles. Systems suitable for the delivery of drug, peptides, proteins oligonucleotides and genes are under examination.
Vesicular systems have also been shown to be useful as immunological adjuvants, promoting both humoral and cellular immunity, while being non-toxic. Progress has been made with formulations for oral vaccines.
Through its network of international contacts, SIDR had built up an extremely diverse library of natural product extracts, largely comprising of higher plants. Access to SIDRs natural product library is available under licence to industry. Agreed quantities of extracts are provided with exclusivity for an agreed period. Taxonomic identification and resupply are guaranteed. The natural product library represents a collection of about 500,000 highly diverse chemicals. SIDR can screen this collection against bioassays suggested by client companies in order to isolate and identify candidate lead molecules.
For further information contact:
Professor Alan Harvey
Director
Strathclyde Institute for Drug Research
University of Strathclyde
27 Taylor Street
Glasgow G4 0NR
Tel:
Fax:
Email:
Web: www.sidr.org
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