National Drug Discovery Centre

The National Drug Discovery Centre features the latest in robotic high-throughput screening technologies with a highly modular system that can be customised according to project needs. The NDDC is staffed by a specialised team with deep industry and academic experience, providing end-to-end support from assay development through to hit identification. 

Equipped with three ultra-high throughput robotic platforms, the centre supports large-scale, reproducible testing of dozens to millions of compounds across a wide range of configurable formats to meet project needs.  

The NDDC is an industry-grade facility providing fast, reproducible testing of small molecules. We support a broad range of target classes and can either adapt assays developed in other labs or establish new protocols to meet specific project needs. Our capability includes: 

• Biochemical and cell-based assays 
• Assay design and development 
• High-throughput screens, ranging from small libraries to more than 1,000,000 compounds 
• Assay support for med chem programs in hit-to-lead and lead optimisation stages 
• Consultancy, including strategic advice on screening approaches, assay suitability, library selection and data interpretation 

Our platforms are highly configurable and our readers can be docked to collaborative robotic systems or used independently. 

• High-content imaging: PerkinElmer Opera Phenix confocal imaging system with high-throughput by simultaneous acquisition 
• Multi-mode microplate reader: BMG PHERAstar FSX 
• Automated FACS: Intellicyt iQue Screener PLUS automated flow cytometry for phenotypic screens 
• Whole-plate fluorometric imaging: FLIPR Penta high-throughput cellular screening system 
• Acoustic ejection mass spectrometry: SCIEX Echo MS System 

We offer users access to diverse screening collections of more than 600,000 high-quality and lead-like small molecules. More than a quarter of a million compounds are managed on-site in humidity-controlled automated storage. 

We also welcome projects that use investigator-supplied libraries or alternative sourced collections. 

We can screen for a very large diversity of target classes. We can advise on suitable assay technologies or develop a protocol that is suitable for high throughput screening. Users provide their own assay protocol and specific materials, such as cell lines or proteins. If your assay has already been demonstrated in 96-well format and meets minimum robustness, signal-to-background and component-stability requirements, our expert staff will miniaturise and adapt it to run on our high-throughput platform.

Drug repurposing can appear as an attractive strategy to uncover new therapeutic indications for already developed medicines. However, it is important to understand the limitations and challenges of this approach and why it is often not the best strategy to develop drugs for your disease of interest. 

For an in-depth review on this topic by a network of Australian scientific leaders, see: 

Begley et al. Drug repurposing: Misconceptions, challenges, and opportunities for academic researchers, 2021 Science Translational Medicine