Discussion

The European Lead Factory project is a ground-breaking collaborative project looking at a new approach to drug discovery. A synthesis of academic creativity, Big Pharma experience and SME innovation, the project seeks to break the boundaries of drug discovery. In this talk we will describe how the European Lead Factory is taking the creative art of total synthesis and the most modern of synthetic methodologies, and is providing an exciting new outlet for this in the arena of drug discovery. This will be illustrated by several examples of new chemical scaffold synthesis from our labs, and our personal experiences of working in the European Lead Factory. Chemical scaffolds have been prepared using our combined two-directional synthesis / tandem reaction methodology, and using new aspects of sulfinimine chemistry developed recently in the group.