Aberdeen University launches new centre to speed drug development

The Centre already has several pharma companies on board for projects in the pipeline including programmes in cancer, heart disease, infection and pain. The Centre will also work on obesity and neurodegenerative diseases.

“Scientists and clinicians can be working on research, or be involved in patient care, when they discover something that might suggest a possible new way of treating a medical condition,” said Centre director Ruth Ross, who is also Chair in Molecular Pharmacology at the University.

“However the journey from bench to bedside is a laborious one, which is incredibly time consuming, may involve expertise that the scientist or clinician does not have, and will certainly require funding. […] The Kosterlitz Centre will offer all kinds of support to researchers and clinicians in this position, from helping with grant applications and filing patents, to approaching industry, pharma companies, investors and philanthropists for financial backing.”

Iain Greig, Deputy Director of the Kosterlitz Centre and a medicinal chemist said, “We want to ensure that a Eureka moment a scientist or clinician may have in the lab or in a medical setting, perhaps when they identify a new receptor or pathway, doesn’t fizzle out because they don’t have the support to translate that finding into a new therapy that could help patients.”

One of the key areas of expertise is synthetic organic chemistry: the synthesis of potential new therapeutic compounds. This research will be led by Matteo Zanda, the Northern Research Partnership Chair in Medical Technologies, recruited to Aberdeen University last year from Milan.

The Centre is named after one of the University of Aberdeen’s most famous scientists, Hans Kosterlitz, who joined the university in 1933. He was co-discoverer of endorphins, morphine-like chemicals produced by the body that affect reactions to pleasure and pain. Kosterlitz headed the Unit for Research on Addictive Drugs, which remained at the forefront of opioid research for many years and he carried on working until he was approaching his 90s.

Ross said, “The findings of Hans Kosterlitz were a breakthrough in the truest sense of the word and transformed our understanding of the body’s own painkillers. Even today they have implications for pharmacology and are informing new ways of treating drug addiction. The new Centre will build on Kosterlitz’s legacy by capitalising on the wealth of expertise that already exists at the University of Aberdeen and ensuring new ideas and concepts are not lost.”