Celebrating the official launch of ARC CFBD

/ arccfbd

Dr Narelle Tunstall, Centre Manager

The Centre for Fragment-Based Design officially commenced on 22 July 2019 with the execution of our Participants Agreement and the Centre was launched by The Honourable Kevin Andrews MP on 12 November 2019. The launch was held in conjunction with Australia’s national conference on Fragment-Based Drug Design, which allowed us to leverage a full week of activities including our first Scientific Advisory Board meeting and the Centre’s first training events, in partnership with key industry and international stakeholders. 

The launch, conference and training workshops were very well received by attendees, with many of our academic and industry participants and other stakeholders in attendance. These initial activities have established a strong base of interest in the Centre for further collaborative opportunities that will drive our research initiatives and support growth, productivity and competitiveness in fragment-based design for the sector.

There was some great coverage of the event. Monash and Griffith both had media releases publicising the launch event, which were picked up by a Universities to Business article.

Our partners GE Healthcare (now Cytiva) had a number of representatives, including Paul Belcher all the way from Boston, who wrote a great LinkedIn article about the event.

Dan Erlanson wrote a great summary article on his Practical Fragments blog.

Our objective to establish a coherent and collaborative national network to provide access to the technology necessary to support fragment screening against a wide range of protein targets, has now been firmly grounded in the established Centre. We now have a strong platform and clear means to implement our training program activities, accelerate research translation and continue to engage with industry to meet the growing needs within the rapidly moving sector. 

Professor Martin Scanlon explaining the aims of the ARC CFBD to The Honourable Kevin Andrews MP, the Monash Provost (Professor Marc Parlange), MIPS Director (Professor Chris Porter), Monash DVCR (Professor Rebekah Brown) and ARC CEO (Professor Sue Thomas).
Centre Director, Professor Martin Scanlon speaking about the Centre’s research program and industry partnerships following the unveiling of the plaque.

Feature image: Centre CIs (L-R: Professor Jonathan Baell, Professor Sally-Ann Poulsen, Professor Michael Kassiou, Professor Joel Mackay, Dr Maria Halili, Professor Martin Scanlon and Professor Ray Norton) with ARC CEO Professor Sue Thomas and Centre Manager Dr Narelle Tunstall.