Biochemistry and Biophysics Group

The Biophysics and Biochemistry group specialises in small molecule drug discovery projects within the Centre for Medicines Discovery. We carry out assay development, high throughput screening campaigns and the subsequent biophysical and biochemical characterisation of lead compounds. The group has been supporting the discovery of probes for 13 years and has worked with the medicinal chemistry groups in the University of Oxford, outside collaborators in academia and industry, and multinational consortia.

Our expertise is available through a small research facility (SRF). We are offering a range of services from supporting you in assay development and miniaturisation to carrying out assay development, screening campaign and lead characterisation for you.

• Support with assay development for challenging targets, covering a wide range of technologies (see below)
• Assay miniaturisation to 384 well and 1536 well microtiter plate formats
• Conducting high throughput screening campaigns on our platforms
• Lead validation and characterisation with biophysical methods
• Time and training on our equipment if you have specific needs you can’t address in your own lab

Oleg.fedorov@cmd.ox.ac.uk

Compound storage and liquid handling:

• Labcyte Echo 550 in Access workstation
• Formulatrix Tempest
• ThermoFisher Combi Mutidrop dispensers
• Roylan StoragePopds

Multimode plate readers with plate stackers: BMG PherastarFS & FSX

• HTRF
• AlphaScreen/AlphaLisa
• Fluorescence intensity and polarisation
• Luminescence and absorption

Biophysical methods:

• Surface Plasmon Resonance: BiacoreS200
• Biolayer Interferometry: FortéBio OctetRED384
• Microscale Thermophoresis: Nanotemper Monolith
• Differential Scanning Fluorimetry:
• Label free with NanoTemper Prometheus NT.48
• Dye based thermal shift assays with RT qPCR machines
• Isothermal Titration Calorimetry:
• TA Instruments NanoITC
• Malvern VP-ITC

RapidFire mass spectrometer