Cabinet Secretary Visits Diamond

Sir Jeremy Heywood, Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service with Elizabeth Shotton, Head of Industrial Liaison at Diamond, on Beamline I04-1.

Diamond was honoured to welcome Sir Jeremy Heywood, Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service, for a tour of the synchrotron on Friday 15th January 2016.

Trevor Rayment, Diamond’s Director of Physical Sciences led the tour, which enabled Sir Jeremy to gain an appreciation for the scale of the synchrotron and the range of experiments that take place here at the molecular and atomic level. Sir Jeremy was shown Diamond’s I04-1 beamline, which, along with its ability to perform macromolecular crystallography experiments, also houses the new fragment screening facility, XChem. Here he met Elizabeth Shotton, head of Diamond’s Industrial Liaison Team and John Barker, Vice President of Structural Biology at Evotec, a Diamond industrial partner and leader in the discovery and development of novel small molecule drugs.

Beamline I04-1 and the techniques it offers are utilised by industrial partners such as Evotec as a powerful resource to discover and develop new drugs. The structural information gained on fragment-target complexes provides an excellent starting point for the development of potent and selective drugs, eventually leading to the design of new medicines to treat a wide range of diseases.

Elizabeth Shotton comments “It was a privilege to meet Sir Jeremy and have the opportunity to highlight the key industrial partnerships we have here at Diamond. Industrial engagement plays a crucial role here at Diamond and it is these strategic partnerships with industry and university, often underpinned by investment in complementary equipment or people, which will drive forward scientific research in the UK”.

Though well-established, the fragment screening technique has not to date has not been available in a central facility location to scientists from across the UK and beyond. The facility available on I04-1 will allow structural biologists to identify where drugs could potentially bind, so that they can focus on that particular area for further research. Due to the on-hand expertise of Diamond staff and the streamlining of technologies, this process can take place in a timely and cost-effective manner at a critical early phase in the drug discovery pathway.

To find out more about the industrial partnerships taking place at Diamond, please read more here.