During the developing COVID-19 pandemic, the Nuffield Department of Medicine Research Building is taking measures to prevent the spread of the disease.

Departments are instructed by the University's Registrar to continue to work from home where possible, and manage the return to on site working, based on the University guidelines for risk assessments and work prioritisation.

This is to restrict contact between individuals as far as possible.  The University remains open and operating as far as possible with the following restrictions:

• No public access to the University
• On-site activity permitted where it cannot be undertaken remotely, driven by safety, capacity and other factors such as schools reopening/other changes in government guidelines
• Teaching and assessment are undertaken remotely where possible and, depending on government guidelines, gatherings of staff and students only permitted where essential for teaching and assessment to take place

WHAT IS TARGET DISCOVERY?

Target discovery helps identifying drug targets, molecules or molecular interactions at a critical point in a disease-causing pathway that are predicted to being amenable to therapeutic manipulation. The centre aims to link recent advances in genetics, genomics, cell and chemical biology for improved drug target discovery. A more specific focus for refining and validating such targets will provide a better link between traditional "open ended" academic processes to biomedical research and the need of the pharmaceutical industry for accurately defined targets to accelerate drug development.

Research and core expertise

• Chemical Biology
• Mass Spectrometry for Target Discovery
• Medicinal Chemistry
• High Throughput Screening
• Pharmacogenomics
• Alzheimer's Research UK Oxford Drug Discovery Institute
• Oxford CRISPR/Cas9 Cell Screening Facility
• Biochemistry and Structural Biology
• Chemical Epigenetics