New approaches for drugs and unique therapies

TU Darmstadt coordinates EU consortium on macrocycles

2024/07/18

Macrocycles are a special class of drugs with complex properties, which can enable unprecedented therapeutic approaches. Now the EU-funded consortium “MC4DD”, led by TU Darmstadt, is focussing on the understanding and accessibility of macrocycles in order to expand the possibilities of drug development.

Universities and pharmaceutical companies from Germany, Sweden, Ukraine, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK are involved in MC4DD.

Macrocycles are drug-like substances where over 12 atoms are connected to form small molecular ring. When properly designed, this class of molecules can enable therapeutics where other pharmacological approaches fail. However, the cyclic nature of macrocycles poses technical difficulties that so far have limited their wider clinical use. Headed by the TU Darmstadt, the multinational consortium, Macrocycles for Drug Discovery (MC4DD), funded by the MSCA program of the European Union, now tackles this challenge in a coordinated approach.

Towards this, universities and pharmaceutical companies from Germany, Sweden, Ukraine, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland and UK join forces to improve the synthetic accessibility, the computational predictability and the understanding of their pharmacological behaviour. This will be demonstrated and applied to specific currently difficult drug targets for cancer, depression, obesity, or chronic pain.

‘This consortium provides a great opportunity to foster the leading position of Europe in a highly promising area of drug discovery’, says Felix Hausch, professor at the TU Darmstadt and coordinator of MC4DD. ‘And it allows to train 17 highly skilled PhD students to become experts in this field’.

MC4DD is funded for three years and involves an intensive exchange between the participating labs. The partners receive funding either directly from the EU, from Switzerland or the UK as associated countries. The consortium is further supported by several associated partners that contribute unique expertise and collaborate on special aspects on macrocyclic drug discovery.

Hausch/mih