Fragment research is a recent and burgeoning field: one with the power to help produce drugs quicker, cheaper and smarter than ever before.
Diamond’s fragment screening facility, known as XChem (X-ray structure-accelerated, synthesis-aligned fragment medicinal chemistry), attracts scientists from the UK and Europe because it uses the most sensitive techniques available to detect binding between fragments and proteins. XChem allows scientists to test 500-1000 compounds during a single visit, and its sensitivity makes it easier than ever for scientists to seek out promising drug candidates.
The XChem facility is attached to beamline I04-1 where the full X-ray screening experiment has been implemented as a highly streamlined process, allowing up to 1000 compounds to be screened individually in less than a week including typically 36 hours' unattended beamtime. The process covers soaking, harvesting, automatic data collection, and data analysis. Fragment libraries are available, though users can bring their own.
Users have access to a full fragment screening platform, from high-throughput soaking of compounds and harvesting of crystals in the XChem lab (lab 34) to unattended data collection with dedicated beamtime on I04-1. Users will be trained to use a software pipeline for data analysis of weak fragment binders in hundreds of datasets.
The XChem lab is equipped with:
As standard in Diamond MX beamlines, I04-1 is equipped with:
XChem software pipeline:
Specific to XChem:
Fragment screening is part of the Signature Access drug discovery access route in iNEXT DIscovery.
Dr Daren Fearon: [email protected]
Dr Frank von Delft: [email protected]
iNEXT DISCOVERY workshop on crystallographic fragment screening
1st - 3rd March 2023
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