VIRO-FLOW project aims to integrate the advantages of continuous flow chemistry with in vitro microfluidic bioassay technologies for the fast and efficient discovery of novel and innovative inhibitors of the Hepatitis B Virus (HBV). This programme aims to contribute to the development of innovative methodologies that allow more efficient production of new compounds with anti-viral activity, specifically against HBV, for future transfer of technology and knowledge between different sectors with relevant economic impact. The global objective of this ITN-EID programme is to provide an innovative and high-level training in drug discovery and enabling technologies for 3 Early-Stage Researchers (ESRs), supported by a network of experts in anti-infective therapeutics, specifically virology and bacteriology in AiCuris, a pharmaceutical company; and the Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ), a research Institute focused on sustainable chemistry in the field of catalysis and flow chemistry (through its technology development unit ERTFLOW). This ITN will educate the next generation of well-prepared ESRs, providing them with the skills necessary to pursue successful careers in a rapidly emerging field that requires novel multidisciplinary technological development as well as it will also be the channel for educating well-trained researchers with the scientific, technical and entrepreneurial skills so highly needed in the drug discovery field. This goal will be achieved through industrial doctoral training that includes international, interdisciplinary and inter-sectorial mobility, and that integrates both academic and industrial contributions. The research programme is composed of three closely related projects in the research areas of medicinal chemistry (including organic and computational chemistry), molecular biology and protein biochemistry.

Train2Target is a multidisciplinary European Training Network built to address the challenge of the discovery of alternative antimicrobials. Innovative strategies to deliver a next generation of drugs are urgently needed. The alarming threats and spread of multi-drug resistant bacteria is currently leaving clinicians with very limited options to combat infections especially those from Gram-negative pathogens. The Train 2Target research programme focuses on the assembly of the well-known bacterial cell envelope from a new perspective. Indeed it aims to inhibit novel targets in envelope biogenesis by altering the function and misbalancing the coordination of envelope assembly machines, which build and assemble the Gram-negative bacterial envelope. A wide variety of chemical classes and compounds sources will be screened using innovative biochemical, biophysical and genetic assays to identify valuable hit scaffolds to be optimized into druggable leads. The high quality and credibility of our consortium is ensured by a strong interdisciplinary academia-industry partnership to encompass different complementary expertise ranging from microbiology, bacterial genetics, biochemistry, cell imaging, structural biology, biophysics and chemical synthesis. Our 9 academic groups are all renowned leaders in the cell envelope biogenesis field, whereas the complementary 5 SMEs and 3 Industry partners are specialised in drug discovery and development of novel anti-infective drugs. This unique combination of scientific excellence and industrial know-how in drug discovery covers the entire process from the design to the implementation of innovative antibacterial strategies and lead identification. Train2Target also represents a unique research platform to train 15 Early Stage Researchers and equip them with the necessary scientific and transferable skills that will make them highly competitive for both top European research institutions and the pharma/biotech job market.

Antimicrobial resistance, which is caused by multi-drug-resistant bacterial pathogens is a global health emergency. Gram-negative bacteria (GNB) notably hinder effective treatment because of their impermeable outer membrane (OM). Consequently, many standard-of-care (SOC) antibiotics cannot access intracellular targets in GNB. The objective of the BREAKthrough European Training Network (ETN) is to sensitise GNB to these antibiotics by making their OM permeable. To this end, we will develop inhibitors of three protein machineries that are responsible for OM maintenance. Importantly, many known antibacterial agents have characteristics different from drugs that are directed against targets in mammalian cells. To define better rules for antibacterial drug development a data hub will be created to assemble information on the physico-chemical characteristics of molecules that can pass the OM. To achieve these goals, a multi-disciplinary academic-industrial consortium has been assembled with organic chemists, computational chemists and specialists in high-throughput drug screening, zebrafish infection models, bacterial morphogenesis and the molecular biology of the three targets. The expected outcomes of the BREAKthrough ETN include (i) the development of new chemical space rules for drugs that need to cross the OM, (ii) the discovery of new inhibitors that interfere with OM maintenance to overcome the insensitivity of Gram-negative pathogenic bacteria towards SOC antibiotics and (iii) providing 10 Early Stage Researchers with scientific, technical, business and transferable skills to become professional drug developers with a keen eye for the hurdles in the development of these drugs in an industrial context.