European Drug Initiative on Channels and Transporters (EDICT)

The overall aim of EDICT is to determine the structures of clinically significant membrane protein channels and transporters for the initial development of drugs.

Despite their natural abundance and clinical significance, the structures of fewer than one hundred independent transporter or channel proteins have been determined. The EDICT project brings together leading biologists, chemists, and experts in three key technologies - X-ray crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance, and electron microscopy - to work on this problem. EDICT will provide training opportunities for the 35 plus researchers employed by the project.

EDICT will focus on membrane proteins that are of clinical relevance. The process starts with production and purification, into crystallisation trials to generate new structures, and finally leads to initial candidate drug design and screening.

An overview of the EDICT project can be viewed here.