In Profile: Dr. David Roblin, Francis Crick Institute in London
Dr David Roblin, chief operating officer and director of scientific translation at the Francis Crick Institute in London, talks to EPM about the Institute’s recent partnership with GSK that will address a number of disease areas
What are the key objectives of this partnership and how will these be achieved?
The principle aim of this groundbreaking relationship is to derive accelerated insights into the basic biology of health and disease.
In something we call ‘Close Distance Translation’, scientists from each organisation will work side-by-side in integrated teams at the Crick’s world-leading centre of biomedical discovery in the heart of London and GSK’s global R&D hub in Stevenage. The close proximity of these two sites and the institutions’ complementary areas of expertise will create a fertile ground for collaborative, innovative research – exposing scientists to new ways of thinking and building capability within each organisation. Increased interactions between Crick and GSK scientists will benefit both sides, introducing new ways of working and stimulating the development of novel approaches to problems. GSK and the Crick believe that this fluid interchange of skills and ideas could lead to significant discoveries in the basic scientific understanding of human disease, which could ultimately improve the success rate for discovering new medicines.
This represents a landmark agreement in open science. In the Crick we aim to have industrial scientists embedded in our laboratories and fully integrated with our existing scientific groups. Together the scientists will accelerate breakthroughs in the understanding of human health and disease. GSK is an outstanding partner to commence this effort and I am excited to see what we deliver together.
There are a number of projects in the immediate pipeline, can you please tell us a bit about these?
A number of projects within this collaboration are expected to start in 2015, building up to a steady state of around 10 projects in 2016.
The first four projects involve work in crystallography, viral accessory proteins, small molecule covalent binder collections, and the identification of compound and protein tools relating to immunity and cancer.
By the end of 2016, once the Crick is operational in its new laboratories, all 10 projects should be underway.
The ongoing nature of the Crick-GSK collaboration is expected to foster strong links between the organisations, as well as providing an excellent channel for the training and development of talented staff.
What is the long-term vision for this partnership?
In the spirit of open innovation, research findings from the collaboration will be shared with the broader scientific community, via joint publication in peer-reviewed journals. This will enable important discoveries to be applied across the research community, maximising the potential for the collaboration to progress scientific understanding and accelerate the development of treatments for patients.
This is the first alliance between the Institute and a pharmaceutical company, do you think it could pave the way for further collaborations with industry?
This is the first of what the Crick hopes will be multiple open science collaborations with many companies with an interest in health and the life sciences.