Speeding up the development of new drugs
Posted on 23 May 1997
A huge scientific instrument - the Accelerator Mass Spectrometer - which will enable scientists to conduct research which was previously almost impossible, is to be located near York. The first AMS machine in Europe dedicated to biomedical research, it will speed up drug development, cutting significantly the time it takes to identify new drugs to take through to clinical trials.
The AMS will also open up new avenues of research in food safety, environmental science, plant biochemistry, climatology and nuclear physics.
The Accelerator Mass Spectrometer, costing $2.75m, is being purchased by a subsidiary of the University of York, which has guaranteed service contracts with Glaxo Wellcome, Pfizer, Novartis (formerly Ciba Geigy and Sandoz) and Janssen Pharmaceuticals (a subsidiary of Johnson and Johnson). It will be located in a special facility at MAFF's Central Science Laboratory at Sand Hutton. CSL will use the facility for sample analysis and will initially fund the conversion costs on site.
The main thrust of the AMS at York will be to accelerate the process of drug development and enable companies to extend significantly the number of compounds that can be investigated in a given time.
The development is further evidence of the vitality of Bioscience York, the private/public sector collaboration which represents over 1,500 life scientists in the region. York's critical mass in bioscience, the University's research excellence in biomedical research and its links with pharmaceutical companies led to the decision to purchase the spectrometer.
The AMS is an instrument which enables the highly sensitive analysis of molecules. It is capable of detecting very low levels of radioactivity. Until now its primary use has been in radiocarbon dating - the Turin Shroud was dated by this techniques.
Scientists in Europe are keen to exploit the technique for biomedical research, primarily in conducting drug metabolism studies. These studies establish crucial parameters for drugs and the results form part of the registration package required by regulatory bodies for new drugs. Drug metabolism studies are also used to help identify lead compounds which can be taken on to the clinical phase of investigation.
The AMS will also prove useful to scientists working in plant biochemistry, other biomedical research, geology, climatology, archaeology and agriculture. Customers for the facility are expected to include other European universities, European pharmaceutical industries and the Central Science Laboratory.
"This facility is a boost to the pharmaceutical industry, a boost for biomedical research in Europe and a boost to the York region, which is establishing itself as an international centre for bioscience," said Professor Colin Garner of the University of York, who will manage the new facility.