Come along to this seminar to hear from Dr Félix Calderón, Tres Cantos Open Lab Head, and Dr Alfonso Mendoza, resident Tuberculosis expert at Tres Cantos, who will introduce the Open Lab Foundation.
In the belief that partnership is essential in the fight against endemic infectious diseases, GSK launched in 2010 the Tres Cantos Open Lab Foundation (TCOLF). A non-for-profit organization (registered as a UK based charity) overseen by an independent Governing Board (GB) of world-leading scientists in the field. The TCOLF was conceived to address the translational and funding gap existing in global health between basic research and drug discovery by creating a project-based collaborative environment integrating third parties (academia, biotech, pharma, etc.) and GSK teams. Its uniqueness resides on enable the co-location of open lab fellows within an industry environment.
This co-location has allowed an unprecedented degree of scientific exchange and has triggered numerous follow on grants and activities. To date, some key successes include: development of new platforms, discovery of novel new clinical candidates, identification of new sets of high value hits made available to the wider community and repurposing opportunities of antibiotics to treat drug resistant bacterial infections.
Projects in scope include innovative approaches in the field of endemic infectious diseases that could offer a new solution to an existing gap that can benefit from collaboration with the pharma industry in the fields of gut health (including bacterial enteric infections and environmental enteric dysfunction, EED), malaria, tuberculosis, and kineto mediated infections.
In April 2019, the Governing Board agreed to expand the focus of TCOLF to include translational and clinical activities (up to Ph2a), to support the development of advance leads and clinical assets towards their next phase.
During this seminar, the collaborative model supported by the foundation as well as current scientific priorities and opportunities will be presented. In addition, a review of the science behind key programs in the TCOLF pipeline will be also covered.
To find out more about the strategy, priorities and funding mechanisms of TCOLF, please click here
Félix and Alfonso will be available after the seminar from 13:30 – 15:00 to talk more to researchers whose work might have potential to benefit from the Open Lab Foundation. A networking lunch will be provided after the seminar between 13:00 – 13:30.
If you would like to arrange a meeting with Félix and Alfonso after the seminar, please contact Amira Burshan, Industry Engagement Facilitator – amira.burshan@medsci.ox.ac.uk
