The discovery of new drugs
Located in a building dedicated to the search for new drugs, the Drug Discovery Center at the Pasteur Institute of Lille is a world-renowned center of excellence. This center, headed by Professor Benoit Deprez, brings together some thirty top-level researchers – chemists, biologists, analysts – who study chemical fields that are often unexplored.
Their work, which focuses on the discovery, design, and selection of new drugs, contributes to the very high hopes for new treatments for thousands of patients. It thus addresses one of the major challenges facing our society, which is to preserve our physical and intellectual capacities for as long as possible in the near future.
The Drug Discovery Center
The Drug Discovery Center at the Pasteur Institute of Lille boasts a unique automated screening platform in France and benefits from Europe's largest chemical library, containing 200,000 molecules and compounds. This figure alone offers tremendous potential because the more compounds there are, the greater the chances of finding one that can correct the molecular defect causing the disease under study. This significantly increases the number of possible combinations and the opportunities for tomorrow's discoveries.
The design and optimization of new drugs requires interdisciplinary expertise encompassing chemistry, physics, biology, and in silico modeling. Indeed, the active ingredient of modern drugs, whether synthetic or biological, is always defined at the molecular, or even atomic, level. This specific molecular structure, developed by the unit's researchers, is key to all the drug's properties. It determines its ability to cross the physical and chemical barriers between the different biophases (intestine, blood, tissues, brain, etc.) of the body and to reach its intended target. It is also crucial to its interaction with the target and the achievement of the desired effect. Beyond the therapeutic objective of developing a treatment, molecules also serve as invaluable tools that help biologists better understand the functioning of cells and living organisms and verify the relevance of proposed targets for treating diseases. Researchers are working on antibiotic resistance, type 2 diabetes, certain forms of cancer, the recognition of intracellular antigens by the immune system, and pain.
INTHREPIDE: our program to combat epidemic risks and antibiotic resistance
Recent pandemics demonstrate the urgent need for our societies to equip themselves with the means for a very strong response to the emergence of pathogens that could destabilize them.
The INTHREPIDE research program, launched by researchers at the Pasteur Institute of Lille, aims to identify new therapeutic principles against emerging viral infections and infections by multi-resistant bacteria.
The research teams
Thematic files
