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The Brain Tumour Charity and the SGC announce the first open-access collaboration in European brain tumour research
Farnborough, Hampshire UK -- April 13th, 2016
We are delighted to announce a groundbreaking partnership between The Brain Tumour Charity and the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC), an international group of academic and industrial researchers with a strong track record in uncovering new drug targets and initiating clinical trials within unusually short timeframes.
Under the agreement - the first of its kind in European brain tumour research – the SGC and The Brain Tumour Charity will conduct collaborative research under a completely open access policy in which no patents will be filed.
Any discovery and data that the partnership uncovers will be made freely available, immediately and without restriction, to anyone else in the world who is working in the field of brain tumour research - regardless of whether they are in academia or industry.
The Brain Tumour Charity is the UK’s largest dedicated brain tumour charity, fighting the disease on all fronts through research, awareness and support.
The partnership, under which The Brain Tumour Charity will fund two research posts at the SGC, will create a unique interface between the SGC’s large network of academic and industrial drug discovery scientists and The Brain Tumour Charity’s network of researchers.
The combined team will discover, characterise and advance novel drug targets for brain tumours using structural biology, chemical proteomics and chemical biology - all working under the same open access principles.
Sarah Lindsell, chief executive of The Brain Tumour Charity, said: “We have two clear goals – to double survival and to halve the harm caused by brain tumours. We will only achieve them by driving forward new ways of working and by collaborating with others who share our vision.
“Progress towards new treatments for brain tumours has been much too slow, partly because of complex issues around ‘ownership’ of research discoveries. SGC operates in a wholly different way which fits perfectly with our pioneering approach and which offers us an opportunity to bring about real change.”
Prof Chas Bountra, Chief Scientist of the SGC at the University of Oxford, said: “The Brain Tumour Charity and its leadership are real visionaries – it is rare in our midst to find like-minded groups who are placing the science for the patient before any other distractions such as patents and ownership.
“Their brave decision of exploring truly innovative targets will most certainly help drive the next generation of fundamental discoveries that lead us to new medicines.
About the Brain Tumour Charity
The Brain Tumour Charity is at the forefront of the fight to defeat brain tumours, making a difference every day to the lives of people with a brain tumour and their families. We fund pioneering research to increase survival, raise awareness of the symptoms and effects of brain tumours and provide support for everyone affected to improve quality of life. We are committed to funding world-class research into brain tumours, from the earliest laboratory studies to clinical trials.
About the SGC
The SGC is a pre-competitive public-private partnership that accelerates research in human biology and drug discovery by making all of its research output freely available to the scientific community. To achieve its mission, the organization is building an open and collaborative network of scientists: the SGC has active research facilities at six leading academic institutions across the globe (Toronto-Canada, Oxford-UK, UNICAMP-Brazil, Karolinska-Sweden, UNC Chapel Hill-USA and Frankfurt-Germany), and SGC scientists collaborate with more than 300 researchers in academia and industry. The SGC is a registered charity (number 1097737) that receives funds from AbbVie, Bayer Pharma AG, Boehringer Ingelheim, Canada Foundation for Innovation, Eshelman Institute for Innovation, Genome Canada, Innovative Medicines Initiative (EU/EFPIA), Janssen, Merck & Co., Novartis Pharma AG, Ontario Ministry of Economic Development and Innovation, Pfizer, São Paulo Research Foundation-FAPESP, Takeda and Wellcome Trust.