Name: National Infrastructure for Chemical Biology
Institution: Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Czech Academy of Sciences
Coordinator: RNDr. Petr Bartůněk, CSc., bartunek@img.cas.cz
Website
CZ-OPENSCREEN operates the most advanced research infrastructure for basic and applied research in the fields of chemical biology and genetics in the Czech Republic and provides open access to its external users. It supports this new interdisciplinary research by bridging traditional natural sciences such as cell biology, molecular and structural biology, biochemistry, organic chemistry and chem/bioinformatics. The main mission of CZ-OPENSCREEN is to identify new molecular probes and to develop new tools for the research of chemical compounds as candidates for the development of new potential therapeutics. Unlike commercial platforms, CZ-OPENSCREEN also focuses on non-validated molecular targets, signalling pathways and neglected diseases. To those users from the biological and chemical community, CZ-OPENSCREEN offers standard biological and biochemical assays, consultancy and development of new assays, high-throughput screening (HTS), profiling of chemical compounds on a panel of cell lines and medicinal chemistry optimization of newly identified biologically active compounds. CZ-OPENSCREEN is systematically building a library of both commercial chemical compounds as well as compounds synthesized in the Czech Republic. It provides access to this unique library to external users. An integral part of the services is chemiformatics support, such as data analysis and storage, the development of new analytical tools and database systems. CZ-OPENSCREEN is equipped with state-of-the-art technologies
for high-throughput screening of chemical compounds such as integrated robotic HTS stations, robotic stations for performing automatic microscopic analyses and label-free technology, integrated robotics systems for compound storage and sample preparation. The long-term international collaboration of CZ-OPENSCREEN with other European partner institutions has contributed to the establishment of the EU-OPENSCREEN ERIC (European Infrastructure of Open Screening Platforms for Chemical Biology) European Research Infrastructure Consortium. The Czech Republic is among the founding Member States. CZ-OPENSCREEN is its national node and besides other activities, it will host the European Chemical Biology Database (ECBD), where all the data generated by EU-OPENSCREEN ERIC partner sites will be stored.
