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  • Side-by-side profile images of three researchers
    Latest subsidy recipients announced

    Mental health, malaria and obesity are in the line of sight for the National Drug Discovery Centre

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  • Male scientist standing in a scientific facility
    COVID-19 research

    The NDDC is accelerating the development of new medicines for COVID-19 and other coronaviruses

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  • Highly subsidised high-throughput screens
    Apply for a subsidised screen

    The next round of applications for subsidised screens will close in May 2023.

    View Details

Fast-tracking the latest scientific discoveries into new medicines

The National Drug Discovery Centre enables Australian medical researchers to access the latest in advanced ultra-high throughput screening, addressing a critical early challenge in the drug discovery pipeline.



What we offer

We provide a fully staffed facility with an industry gold-standard robotic screening platform to miniaturise and automate your assay.

 

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Cutting edge automation

 
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Over 100,000 lead-like small molecules

 
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Acoustic dispensing technology

 
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Assay miniaturisation

 
Ownership icon
Full IP ownership

Learn more


 
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Experienced specialists

 

Wide range of assay capabilities

Our facilities are equipped with two ultra-high throughput robotic platforms for biochemical and cell-based assays. These configurable platforms can support incubation steps and multiple reagent additions, as well as readout options that include whole-plate fluorometric imaging, high-throughput flow cytometry, high-content imaging and multi-mode plate reader screens.

  • High-throughput
    flow cytometry
  • Whole-plate fluorometric
    imaging (FLIPR)
  • Time-resolved
    fluorescence
  • Fluorescence
  • Fluorescence
    polarisation
  • Luminescence
  • FRET
  • High-content
    imaging
  • Absorbance

Case studies

Professor Guillaume Lessene in the NDDC
Discovering how to prevent healthy cells from dying
Still image from venetoclax animation
Landmark discovery leads to development of effective leukaemia drug venetoclax

Assay requirements

 

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Your lab must have hands-on experience running the assay


 
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Your reagents must be stable over the duration of the assay


 
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Your assay must be demonstrated in 96-well format


 
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Your assay must have a robustness > 0.4 and signal-to-background ratio > 2


 
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You must be able to provide project-specific materials such as special cells or recombinant proteins


 
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Your readout technology must be supported


 

Costs

Applicants from Australian research institutes and small-to-medium enterprises may be eligible to apply for an Australian Government-sponsored screening subsidy.

This subsidy reduces the outlay for a standard screening campaign to a small fraction of the actual cost of running it. Subsidised screens will be awarded competitively through bi-annual selection rounds. Successful applications are chosen by an independent panel of drug discovery experts from around Australia.

The charges for a subsidised project vary but would typically be only around $45,000 to screen a library of 300,000 small molecules, provided that the assay can be miniaturised to 1536-well format by our staff.

Researchers who are ineligible to apply for subsidised screens are still encouraged to contact us regarding the possibility of collaborative or contract-based projects.

Cost

How to apply for a subsidised screen

The next round of applications for subsidised screens will close on 17 May 2023. Please get in touch with us now to discuss your project.

1
Meet assay readiness requirements
Download requirements
2
Complete the mutual confidentiality agreement
Download agreement
3
Request a login for the secure online application portal
Contact us
4
Complete the online application
Apply now

Supporters
 

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We acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation as the traditional owners of the land where our campuses are located, and recognise their continuing connection to country and community.

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1G Royal Parade, Parkville Victoria 3052, Australia
2023 The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research.
ABN: 12 004 251 423