Thermo Fisher Scientific, the world leader in serving science, announced that Cancer Research Technology (CRT) has purchased 2,000 Maybridge Fragments as the foundation of its new fragment screening library. Wholly owned by the internationally renowned charity, Cancer Research UK, CRT is a specialist oncology-focused development and commercialisation company. Selected for its high quality, the Maybridge Fragment Collection will be used in CRT's established discovery laboratories in London and Cambridge for fragment-based screening, a key technology to accelerate the identification of drug leads against novel cancer targets.

"Having reviewed several vendor catalogues with a focus on fragment collections for a discrete selection of heterocyclic small molecules with suitable properties, we ultimately chose the Maybridge Fragment Collection due to its superior overall fit to our requirements," explained Dr Martin Swarbrick, group leader, Medicinal Chemistry, at CRT. "A good fit to 'Rule-of-Three' principles for physicochemical properties was essential, as well as lead-likeness and 'drug-ability'."

Other key features of the Maybridge Fragment collection that influenced the CRT selection process include its high compound purity and chemical diversity, which is supported by related synthons elsewhere in the Maybridge catalogue. The availability of related building blocks featuring the same fragments from Maybridge stock facilitates the rapid construction of a library around chosen core fragments for hit-to-lead work and further optimisation.

"Other factors in our decision to purchase the Maybridge Fragment selection were their immediate and reliable availability for prompt follow up work, as well as the favourable pricing," added Swarbrick.

"We are very proud to have been selected by such an eminent cancer technology transfer company due to the quality, diversity and flexibility of our Fragment Collection," said Dr Mick Durrant, director of Business Development for Maybridge products at Thermo Fisher Scientific. "We pride ourselves on our choice of off-the-shelf collections and the ability to pick from our carefully selected fragment lists. This enables our customers to create their own bespoke libraries, giving them both convenience and complete control over their fragment screening programmes to ultimately accelerate lead generation."

The Maybridge Fragment collection is a convenient source of pre-selected, high quality building blocks which is a distillation of Maybridge's combined expertise in heterocyclic compound design. Over 30,000 compounds have been assembled to form a pool from which researchers can build their own customised fragment libraries. This collection has been selected for purity, low molecular weight and absence of inappropriate functionality. All compounds are easily re-supplied and available custom weighed in mgs or µmols.

Many of the Maybridge Fragments are fully "Rule-of-Three" compliant, which means that the physicochemical properties of these fragments are optimal; therefore increasing the probability of future "hit" successes. Consequently, Maybridge Fragments provide an ideal starting point for a lead optimisation drug discovery programme and the ultimate evolution of a new molecule in the drug discovery process.

Maybridge, part of Thermo Fisher Scientific, is well known for providing highly innovative drug-like molecules and screening compounds for drug discovery and development.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc is the world leader in serving science, enabling our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer.

Cancer Research Technology Limited (CRT) is a specialist commercialisation and development company, which aims to develop new discoveries in cancer research for the benefit of cancer patients.