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is a professional drug discovery company with all required infrastructure, core competencies and disciplines operating in a fully integrated way at highest industrial standards. The LDC is working closely together with its vast academic and industrial scientific network, e.g. the Max-Planck-Society, universities and pharmaceutical companies. LDC works closely with academic inventors to integrate their specific expertise and to draw on their unique tools, technologies, models, methods and materials. Collaborating with both academia and industry, LDC functions as a facilitator to translate academic basic research results into professional drug discovery projects and high quality products that can be readily commercialized. LDC offers the full workflow in early pharmaceutical drug discovery, including the indispensable disciplines lined out below and herewith covering all necessary technologies and equipment, ranging from drug design to sophisticated chemical synthesis and biological and pharmacological investigations.
The LDC consists of the four scientific departments Medicinal Chemistry (MedChem), Assay Development & Screening, Pharmacology and Biology. MedChem comprises analytical validation of hit compounds, selection of hits and post-HTS activities for hit-to-lead optimization, involving design, chemical laboratory work and medicinal chemistry based interpretation. MedChem includes parallel organic synthesis, computer-aided rational drug design, cheminformatics and computational chemistry analyses, design of focused compound libraries, design, synthesis and acquisition of analogs, establishment of structure-activity and structure-property relationships (SAR, SPR) and pharmacophore models, analoging activities, hit-to-lead identification based on biochemical or cellular active compounds, identification of active compounds, lead optimization. Assay development & Screening comprises development of biochemical and cellular assays for new targets and adaption of existing assays for MTS and HTS formats. LDC/HDC (HDC = “Hit Discovery Constance” which has been founded by LDC as subsidiary in 2011) provides large screening facilities including three HTS units (S2 approved Robocon/cellular uHTS system, Thermo CRS Dimension 4 system, CyBio System for biochemical assay based on fluorescence, luminescence and radioactive read-outs) addressing nearly all types of screening approaches. Biology comprises cellular pharmacology, evaluation of efficacy and toxicity, mode of action and phenotypic studies, cellular selectivity, identification of biomarkers and pharmacodynamic markers. Pharmacology comprises the assessment of chemical molecules, drug-like physicochemical properties, safety and efficacy of drug candidates, early ADME profiling, in vitro ADME screening, coordination and evaluation of PK-, PD- as well as metabolite studies, LC-MS based bioanalytics, coordination of in vivo efficacy studies and early toxicity studies.
LDC holds a profound track record of Target-to-Hit- as well as Hit-to-Lead optimization projects, as it performs numerous projects, e.g. together with the Max-Planck-Society. Moreover, LDC is partner in several projects funded by the European Union (ANTIFLU, FP7; Stabs14-3-3, Marie Curie, IAPP; ChemExit & HypoGreedy, Eurostars; EUC2LID, European Lead Factory, imi). LDC is involved/leading projects funded by the National German Government (BMBF: Lin28b eMed, Endoprotect; BMWi: ZIM AntiChlam) as well as projects funded by the Ministry of Science of North Rhine Westfalia (MWIF) (e.g. Emodi).
LDC has no indication focus but strong experience in the fields of metabolic disorders, cancer, inflammation and neurodegenerative diseases. Though LDC was founded in 2008, three lead packages were already licensed at commercially terms to Bayer Pharma and Qurient. Furthermore, LDC has strategic collaborations with Merck Serono and AstraZeneca on early stage projects.