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Public Compound Collection

Novel high-quality compounds to complete the ELF compound library

The Public Compound Collection (PCC) was designed based on crowdsourced chemistry proposals from experts across Europe. This collection of around 190,000 compounds complements the existing EFPIA compound collection, together creating the more than 500,000-strong European Lead Factory (ELF) compound library.

Composition and characteristics of the PCC

Medicinal chemists from ELF partners Edelris and Symeres have analyzed the physical and chemical properties of the ELF PCC and compared it to commercially available libraries. They also assessed the diversity and novelty of the collection by comparing molecular fingerprints. 

The analysis covered several parameters such as molecular weight, cLogP, and Fsp3, and showed that the PCC differs from commercial high-throughput screening libraries, which is indicative of the novelty of the PCC. When analysed in more detail, and compared to commercial libraries (Enamine, E-Molecules, and the cChEMBL dataset), the PCC reveals itself as a library that is rich in its three-dimensionality (Fsp3/3D descriptor) and has a low LogP.

Find a detailed analysis here

From this analysis, we can conclude that the PCC successfully expands chemical space to improve the discovery of novel chemical probes, novel chemical leads, and drug discovery efforts. Aspects that set the PCC apart from other libraries are an increased three-dimensionality, saturated ring systems, low Log-P, a large number of bases and few acids, novel cores, and an overall high chemical diversity. 

This analysis was performed by Dr. Chimed Jansen (Symeres) and Dr. Hugues Lemoine (Edelris)

The physical-chemical properties of the PCC

Academic partners

The ELF brought together 10 leading European academic groups and institutions with proven expertise in biological chemistry and library design. These groups have published some of the most influential papers internationally on topics including:

  • Productive navigation of biologically relevant chemical space
  • Innovative design of compound libraries with a high hit rate in screening assays
  • Discovery and application of high-quality chemical probes to elucidate biological mechanisms
  • Synthetic approaches that enable the systematic exploration of chemical space.

Publications

Contributions from academic partners have been cited over 38,000 times, with a median H index of ~23 (Web of Science, May 2012), and all have publications that currently rank in the top percentile of their field (Essential Science Indicators, July 2010). Many of their outputs that are of direct relevance to this project have been published recently, confirming the quality of expertise on offer within innovative library design and synthesis. Since January 2009, various partners have published 176 papers on the following:

  • Cheminformatic approaches (18 papers)
  • Novel scaffold synthesis (95 papers)
  • Novel methods for scaffold decoration (8 papers)
  • Bioactive ligand discovery (56 papers) ​

Overall, partners have collectively published over 1,700 papers.

SME partners

Seven of Europe’s most successful small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the field of contract chemistry services have participated in the ELF, helping to translate innovative design ideas into industry‐standard compound libraries. They brought with them significant essential capabilities and capacity, with 350 employees in total dedicated to the ELF along with cutting-edge lab facilities. The SME partners were able to synthesize the required numbers of compounds to an industrial specification within tight time frames and budgets. 

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