Leiden Early Drug Discovery & Development

Despite recent advances in medicine, many devastating disorders like cancer and cardiovascular, neurodegenerative and infectious diseases still lack effective treatments. In order to address this challenge, we, as scientists from Leiden University, joined hands in the LED3 network. LED3, for Leiden Early Drug Discovery & Development, is a partnership between the Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL), Leiden Institute of Chemistry (LIC) and the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR).

Together, we pursue the discovery of novel drug targets, molecules, and concepts for drug discovery, so that more effective and safer treatments can be developed in the future. Our research themes are centered around the early drug discovery pipeline. For each pipeline stage we will show how the combined expertise and facilities of the LED3 network leads to enhanced drug discovery, but also how partnerships with industry can take us even further.

Fundamental knowledge enhances drug discovery

The overarching LED3 vision is that if we understand more about the dynamics of chemical and biological interactions at the molecular and cellular level, our knowledge base of human health and disease will be fortified. Therefore, we strongly believe that expanding this fundamental knowledge will drive the novel concepts that allow the discovery of innovative drugs. To achieve this goal, we strive for excellent research and pursue synergetic collaborations with academia and industry.

Collaborate with LED3

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go further, go together.”

Thanks to our in-house facilities and broad expertise, but also our vicinity to the Leiden Bio Science Park and the LUMC, we have collaborations with many internal and external partners. These projects are moving along the drug discovery and development pipeline, as is shown below. Explore the various case studies, to see how they utilize the LED3 network and its expertise areas and facilities.