The Drug Discovery Centre collaborates closely with the High Throughput Chemical Screening (HTCS) group based at the Walter & Eliza Hall Medical Research Institute (WEHI). Since 2003, the HTCS facility has successfully executed in excess of 30 collaborative screening projects with both academic and/or commercial partners. Screening campaigns have been completed against a broad range of therapeutic targets implicated in cancer, psychiatric disorders, epilepsy, auto-immunity rejection, asthma, Friedrich’s ataxia, thalassaemia and three tropical diseases.

The HTCS group has established a successful track record in screening, resulting in commercial collaborations with prominent biotechnology companies. The Drug Discovery Centre is working in close collaboration with the HTCS group through co-ownership of the 160,000 chemical compound library by CCIA and WEHI and the exchange of screening assays, standard operating procedures and quality control systems.

The Drug Discovery Centre also has a collaborative network with the Cancer Therapeutics CRC and the Queensland Compound Library (QCL). QCL is a specialist facility that stores and manages the chemical compound library of 160,000 small molecules that is used by the Drug Discovery Centre. QCL has the capacity to store large numbers of chemical small molecules under optimal conditions (excluding liquid nitrogen) and provide chemical compound plates to the Drug Discovery Centre as needed for each individual screening campaign.