Chemical Biology Consortium Sweden (CBCS) was formally established in 2010 through the joint efforts of academic and industrial researchers within small-molecule discovery, and Swedish public funding agencies.   Through a VINNOVA-funded planning phase in 2009, the founding members of CBCS thoroughly investigated the need for, and current availability of, academic research infrastructure for the discovery and development of small organic molecules, so-called chemical probes, for biological research.  The project clearly identified that academic biomedical research in Sweden would substantially benefit from access to a nationally encompassing, independent chemical biology infrastructure.

Discussions during 2009 between representatives from Biovitrum AB’s research department, the Swedish Research Council, academic researchers at Umeå University, Uppsala University and Karolinska Institutet, shaped the vision for CBCS as a national research facility for Swedish academia.  With this background, the CBCS initiative received long-term funding from the Swedish Research Council in early 2010 to establish a comprehensive centre for chemical biology at KI (Laboratories for Chemical Biology Karolinska Institutet – LCBKI), which together with the Uppsala University Drug Optimization and Pharmaceutical Profiling Platform (UDOPP) and Laboratories for Chemical Biology Umeå (LCBU) at Umeå University would form the foundation for a national infrastructure for chemical biology research – CBCS.  This investment was further strengthened by the generous donation of assets from Biovitrum’s research department, including substantial laboratory instrumentation and materials and the Biovitrum Compound Screening Collection, to the LCBKI centre.

The most important short term scientific value of the establishment of CBCS will be the enabling of high-impact research within the field of chemical biology in Sweden by providing the combination of a state-of-the-art infrastructure and industrial know-how for the generation of high-quality chemical probes. CBCS tools and technologies are made available on a national level to all Swedish universities.  In the long term, findings from the chemical biology community in Sweden has the potential to result in groundbreaking biological discoveries, validation of new drug targets and novel concepts for the development of useful therapeutics and diagnostics.