2019 recap!

2019 has been another busy and successful year for us at Sygnature Discovery. During the year we turned 15, we made several key appointments, expanded our technology portfolio, and witnessed our business go from strength-to-strength.

Early in 2019 we added considerable expertise to our Oncology drug discovery capability, now being led by Dr Allan Jordan, who brings nearly a quarter of a century’s experience in cancer research to the company. Our DMPK capabilities also received a major boost with several new senior hires with extensive experience in the field, we also officially opened our new labs in Alderley Park, further increasing our DMPK capacity and there is much more to come (watch this space in early 2020!).

Following our acquisition of RenaSci last year, we’ve strengthened the links between two companies with scientific synergies, key appointments and a new RenaSci website. For example, in 2019 Sygnature developed a suite of 2D and 3D multicellular models of organ fibrosis that can support client drug discovery project in vitro and link through to the multiple validated rodent models of fibrotic disease provided by RenaSci.

We are always looking to evaluate technology that can help to drive efficiency in our client projects, and this year we introduced and launched an in-house high-throughput screening (HTS) capability, which will be instrumental in allowing us to identify synthetically-tractable lead molecules more quickly.  This has already delivered for our clients on some very interesting early stage projects.  Our innovation in Augmented Reality (AR) for drug discovery collaborations reached the prototype stage with our AR VisMol technology, pushing the boundaries for how drug discovery collaborations can be done.

During the year we also hosted 28 Sygnature Guest Lectures with prominent scientists from all over the world sharing expert insights in their areas of drug discovery, and we look forward to continuing this enlightening forum with many more in 2020.

Across the pond, we relocated our US office, and it’s now in the heart of the Boston/Cambridge biopharma cluster in Kendall Square. With so much of our business being with US-based clients, this new base close to so many of them truly enhances our ability to work more closely together.

And we capped off the year with an award. The Medilink Outstanding Achievement Award for the East Midlands recognises our work in the drug discovery field, our world-class science, impressive growth and the impact we have on the life sciences industry. We have also been shortlisted for the national award in 2020.

In the past 15 years, we have come a long way. So far, 15 molecules we’ve designed for clients have entered the clinic, and several more are close to it. This is why we’re in business – to help push drug discovery programmes forward for our clients and for the benefit of patients in the future.

So Merry Christmas and a big thank to all our clients and collaborators for a great 2019; we look forward to enabling even more success in 2020!