Structural Genomics Consortium launches UK Biomedical Community Consultation
14 October 2011
The Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) is a not-for-profit, public-private partnership with the directive to carry out basic science of relevance to drug discovery. The core mandate of the SGC is to determine 3D structures on a large scale and cost-effectively - targeting human proteins of biomedical importance and proteins from human parasites that represent potential drug targets. The SGC believes its output will have maximal benefit if released into the public domain without restrictions on its use and has adopted an open access policy.
In line with its open access ethos, the SGC is carrying out a consultation exercise to assess the level of convergence of priorities and interests between the SGC and biomedical research communities. The consultation will be done at the level of biological target families and/or areas.
It is hoped an increased alignment of interests will result in the accelerated uptake and application of the knowledge generated by the SGC and enable new discoveries and advances. The knowledge generated will include expressed pure human proteins, crystallographic structures to understand form and function, antibodies derived using the purified human proteins as antigens, and the identification of inhibitors and/or chemicals to probe biological function.
The consultation, using a simplified web form, will be carried out initially in the countries hosting SGC labs, starting in the UK and Canada. The URLs for the consultation websites for each of the countries are being distributed by the SGC and local funders.
If you are in the UK, the consultation can be found on the SGC website. For further details and questions, send us an e-mail at contact@sgc.ox.ac.uk.
Image credit: SGC.
