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ELF testimonial: Joen Luirink
Joen Luirink is an Associate Professor and Head of the Molecular Microbiology Department at the Vrije Universiteit (VU) in Amsterdam. Joen's research interests lie in protein trafficking in bacteria and vaccine development. He told us about his experience of working with the European Lead Factory (ELF) and what he has learned so far in the journey.
What has been your experience of working with the ELF?
Excellent. Despite the ELF having limited experience with phenotypic screening of bacteria for anti-infectives, there was enthusiasm to use this approach and adapt our stress-based assay to the required High-throughput Screening format. The whole project was well organised and the ELF management team arranged regular online meetings to communicate challenges, progress, and results. All ELF team members are experts in their own fields of research and management.
What has been the added value to your work of working with the ELF? What has made the biggest impact?
I can’t yet comment on what the real impact will be. We are waiting to find out if the results will lead to the inhibitors of bacterial cell envelope biogenesis that we aimed for. If so, the question will be, can they be developed into novel antibiotics? We only recently received the compound hits and have just started testing. It’s early days yet but exciting nonetheless!
Personally, I have learned a lot about the possibilities and limitations of screening libraries at this scale and the quality control associated with hit-finding analysis.
What is it that makes the ELF compound library so attractive?
The sheer scale of it! It is huge, accessible, and well maintained. The team is knowledgeable and not afraid to try something new.
Would you recommend others to work with the ELF?
Yes, and I already have.