About us

Our History:

Charing Cross Hospital

Sir Richard Sykes initiated a project in January 2007 to address the growing gap between early stage academic research within Imperial College and commercial development by the pharmaceutical industry.   The Drug Discovery Centre is the result: a cross-faculty resource, hosted by the Faculty of Medicine, based in the Laboratory Block at Charing Cross Hospital Campus.

Our Strategy:

We have adopted a “virtual biotech” approach, allowing us to have ultimate flexibility, bringing the best expertise to the project in a timely manner.  We are a small core of scientists that collaborate extensively both within the college and externally with industry, employ consultants, and outsource blocks of work to contract research organizations as and when required.

Our People:

We are a multi-disciplinary team of scientists who bring a wealth of experience from the pharmaceutical industry to the college.  This industrial experience is key to translating this early research into drug discovery projects. More...

Our Capabilities & Facilities:

We have particular expertise in the fields of: Medicinal Chemistry, Molecular Modeling, Pharmacology, Assay Development, Compound Screening and Project management.  Our laboratory at Charing Cross Hospital is designed for assay development & small-scale screening, and houses the Imperial DDC compound collection as well as computational chemistry resource for drug design.  More...

Our Management & Governance:

We are governed by an Executive Management Board and have a Scientific Advisory Board composed of academics from across the various College faculties and Innovations to help guide developments in the Centre.  More...