Accelerating pharmaceutical structure-guided drug design: a successful model

The impact and value of structure-based drug design to pharmaceutical discovery across the industry are now undeniable, with many break-through therapies on the market that are structure based in nature. Enabling the structural research is the Industrial Macromolecular Crystallography Association-Collaborative Access Team (IMCA-CAT), formed over 25 years ago as a world-class research facility at the synchrotron at Argonne National Laboratory. What makes IMCA-CAT unique is the strategy of the founding consortium to comprehensively provide for the evolving needs of industry in one facility. This includes year-round high-quality data, capabilities that match target portfolios, throughput and capacity that are never limiting, and unfailing security. Here, we illuminate the unique capabilities offered by IMCA-CAT and instruct how all industrial organizations can access this facility.