Sebastian Pomplun manages to reach proteins with drugs even where this was thought impossible. That is why he and his research group have been allowed to join Oncode Institute. With nine others, he has been selected from 72 applicants to help make a major efficiency step in developing cancer drugs.
Sebastian Pomplun studied Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Technologies. He succeeded in creating drugs that can reach proteins that were thought to be inaccessible to drugs. He also developed techniques that allow researchers to screen huge libraries of innovative chemicals. This allows them to identify new bioactive compounds: potentially new drugs.
Pomplun conducts research at the Drug Discovery & Safety Department, part of the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research. In spring 2022, he was awarded a €1.85 million ERC start-up grant. With this, he is working, among other things, on ways to disrupt cancer processes in cells by influencing the functioning of genes.
Oncode Institute's mission: developing medicines more efficiently
Pomplun's work aligns well with Oncode Institute's mission. Oncode wants to change the problem that only one in 20 cancer drugs tested on humans eventually makes it to the market. And those other 19 were also preceded by a huge development process. A huge loss for patients and society.
Oncode was funded 325 million from the National Growth Fund in May last year. With this, the consortium is working on ways to efficiently select the most promising substances so that more experimental drugs reach the finish line. Leiden chemists, pharmacologists, biologists, and computer scientists, among others, are putting their shoulders to the wheel together. Mario van der Stelt, professor of Molecular Physiology at the LACDR, was one of the architects.
Ten new group leaders thanks to donor programme
Within Oncode Institute, some 50 involved companies and institutes work to develop cancer drugs faster and better. All thirteen Dutch universities are involved. From 1 January 2024, thanks to donations through Oncode Institute's Major Donor Programme, ten junior group leaders and their research groups may join the consortium. Pomplun is one of them.
Clare Isacke, dean of the Institute of Cancer Research in London, member of Oncode Institute's international advisory board and chair of the selection committee, says: 'We are proud to invite a multidisciplinary group of young researchers to join this wonderful institute. Their diversity in background and expertise helps Oncode Institute's mission to focus on cancer research from different perspectives.'
