IRIC - Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer

Published on October 18, 2011

The infrastructure will allow the Institute to accelerate the development and the commercialization of innovative therapies against cancer

On October 4, IRIC inaugurated its medicinal chemistry facility. Situated on the fourth floor of the Marcelle-Coutu Pavilion where IRIC is housed, the facility brings together 18 chemists and 5 biologists who are closely collaborating in the discovery of new therapies against cancer.

A crucial stage of drug discovery, medicinal chemistry enables the design of new biologically active molecules and the optimization of their therapeutic properties. These new molecules can then serve as pharmacological tools to dissect the biological processes at the origin of diseases such as cancer, and thereby offer candidate molecules for the development of new drugs in partnership with the pharmaceutical industry. “This inauguration marks a very important step in IRIC’s history. To fulfill our mission of developing new, more effective therapies against cancer, it is crucial to work with a team of chemists dedicated entirely to that activity,” explains Dr. Guy Sauvageau, IRIC Chief Executive Officer and Scientific Director, “I am confident that the work undertaken with the help of the medicinal chemistry facility will allow us to consolidate our research efforts and will foster the development of innovative anticancer therapeutics.”
The infrastructure will encourage the establishment of important partnerships with the pharmaceutical industry. In fact, a major partnership has already been concluded with the BioPharma leader Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY). Joel Barrish, Vice-President – Medicinal Chemistry at Bristol-Myers Squibb, underscored the importance for the private and academic sectors to collaborate for successful drug discovery and development: “Drug discovery is a multidisciplinary science that requires the seamless integration of many disparate fields across chemistry, biology and medicine – the sum truly is greater than the individual parts. While there are now a few other academic drug discovery labs that have emerged, IRIC was one of the first and it is certainly one of the leaders. It has a foundation of strong scientific teams in multiple areas of chemistry and biology with significant drug discovery experience. IRIC’s drug discovery unit has become a leader by combining ground-breaking basic science that attempts to unravel the fundamental causes of disease with an innovative organizational structure that enhances the opportunity to identify a drug candidate. We saw an opportunity to leverage these strengths at IRIC.” The project was made possible with an $8.7M investment grant from the Knowledge Infrastructure Program, an initiative of the Ministère du Développement Économique, de l’Innovation et de l’Exportation and Industry Canada to renew Canada’s college and university infrastructure.