AstraZeneca introduces world’s most advanced drug discovery robot

AstraZeneca entered a new era in drug development today by unveiling NiCoLA-B, the world’s most advanced drug discovery robot, capable of performing experiments at an industrial scale in the search for new, life-saving medicines.

AstraZeneca also started drug discovery projects with Cancer Research UK and the Medical Research Council, both of which will have unprecedented access to NiCoLA-B via AstraZeneca’s Open Innovation programme, which establishes research collaborations with scientists outside AstraZeneca to advance drug discovery and development of innovative medicines.

• NiCoLA-B is the world’s most advanced robot in drug discovery, capable of testing 300,000 compounds a day in the quest to identify new life saving medicines
• Unlike other, older robots, NiCoLA-B has a unique ability to sense its human colleagues and share their work space, making it more suited to the delivery of current and future science.
• NiCoLA-B is part of the world’s first drug discovery system that uses ‘acoustic displacement’ technology (sound waves rather than pipettes), to move tiny volumes of liquid from storage tubes into assay plates to test potential new medicines for different diseases.      
• NiCoLA-B will support experiments in 40-50 projects per year, against 40 million potential drugs
• AstraZeneca will make NiCoLA-B available to research partners through it Open Innovation programme, and has announced partnerships with Cancer Research UK and the Medical Research Council
• AstraZeneca and CRUK are partnering to discover new medicines for the treatment of cancer.  By combining CRUK’s expertise in cancer biology with AstraZeneca’s expertise in lead discovery, we will accelerate the research of new medicines for patients

AstraZeneca and MRC are partnering to discover new medicines for the treatment of a range of diseases where this is a substantial unmet need