Toronto - June 4, 2026 - The Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) and the Acceleration Consortium (AC) announced today a formalized partnership to help tackle a persistent challenge in biomedicine and early drug discovery: the development of bioactive molecules with drug-like properties, advancing our understanding of human health and disease and jump-starting new drug discovery programs.
Supervisor: Prof. Benjamin Haibe-Kains and Matthieu Schapira
Location: University Health Network, Toronto, Canada
Program: Mitacs Accelerate Umbrella – Target 2035 Fellows
Industry mentor: Principal data/AI scientist at AstraZeneca
Positions available: 1
Target 2035 aims to unlock a new frontier in drug discovery by generating the data needed to fuel machine-learning and AI methods for ligand discovery.
Location:
Term: Multi-year project (Estimated 2026–2028)
Supervision: Dr. Matthieu Schapira (SGC/UofT) and Dr. Mohammed AlQuraishi (Columbia University).
Researchers at the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC), spanning its UNC Chapel Hill and Toronto sites, have been awarded funding through the inaugural 2025 End AxD Grant Program to develop the first small molecules targeting the GFAP protein in Alexander disease (AxD).
The project is led by Alison Axtman (SGC-UNC) and co-led by Levon Halabelian (SGC-Toronto), bringing together complementary expertise across SGC sites to address a key barrier in the field: the lack of chemical tools to study GFAP.
Toronto, April 27, 2026 — The Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) today announced the appointment of Dr. Guy Rouleau as Chair of its Board of Directors, effective July 2026.
The American Association for Cancer Research has recognized Cheryl H. Arrowsmith, Chief Scientist of the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC), Senior Scientist at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, and Professor in the Department of Medical Biophysics at the University of Toronto, with the 2026 AACR Award for Outstanding Achievement in Chemistry in Cancer Research.
Toronto, Canada — April 13 — The Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) today announced that it will expand its leadership team to help accelerate the next phase of Target 2035, a global effort to develop a pharmacological modulator for every human protein by 2035.
A new international network of machine learning researchers, computational chemists, and data scientists. Membership is free and provides access to curated datasets for model testing and benchmarking.
Target 2035 collaborates with BEACON, the new benchmarking super-consortium comprising CACHE, DREAM, CASP, OpenADMET, to provide a platform for computational scientists to benchmark hit-finding algorithms in real world settings, with experimental testing of model predictions.
Frankfurt, Germany – April 7, 2026 — PREVENT (Precision REproductive and contraceptiVE target discovery NeTwork), a new multidisciplinary initiative focused on expanding non-hormonal contraceptive strategies, has officially launched. The program brings together expertise across reproductive biology, chemical biology, structural biology, and medicinal chemistry to identify and validate novel targets involved in fertility.