About

Hellenic Small Molecule Center (HSMC) was established in 2018 as a part of the broader infrastructure OPENSCREEN-GR, which serves as a center of excellence for the development of Chemical Biology in Greece. HSMC was initially conceived and designed in 2015 at the Laboratory of Organic Chemistry of the Chemistry Department of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, after the joined vision and efforts of four professors who currently constitute the Management Committee of the infrastructure. In 2016, HSMC accepted a collaboration proposal by OPENSCREEN-GR to merge and jointly become a National Roadmap infrastructure for Chemical Biology. Based on this cooperation, HSMC is currently funded by the National General Secretary of Research and European Union  for the improvement and expansion of the current equipment and instrumentation of the host laboratory, in order to serve as the National depository of compounds in Greece.

HSMC collects, evaluates, organizes and enriches the chemical space in Greece.

HSMC is located in the beautiful main campus of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, a vibrant area in the center of Thessaloniki, that hosts more than 20000 professionals and students. HSMC, at the cross-roads of Europe, Balkans and Asia, seeks to collect the lead biologically active compounds of tomorrow and to become the major chemical library of Southeastern Europe.

The HSMC is structured into four main divisions:

1. General Management
2. Analysis
3. Storage
4. Chemical Synthesis

Each of these divisions can act either individually or synergistically towards the final objective which is the enrichment of the provided chemical libraries.

Divisions of Analysis and Storage have been designed and work as open access facilities for every approved user of the infrastructure.

Submission queries of compounds for analysis and storage are managed by the corresponding divisions as described in the Services menu bar.

HSMC collaborates with several universities and institutes across the country. More than 15. Greek chemistry and pharmacy departments have been included as intended open access users of the HSMC which will provide novel highly diverse compounds in the infrastructure.

HSMC, currently provides its diverse chemical library to members of the OPENSCREEN-GR consortium for biological screening. Members of the consortium are hosted in several Universities and Institutes across Greece :

SNCSR Democritus

Biomedical Research Foundation Academy of Athens (BRFAA)

National Hellenic Research Foundation (NHRF)

University of Ioannina

Agricultural University of Athens

Demokritus University of Thrace

As part of the National Infrastructure OPENSCREEN-GR, HSMC intends to be included as partner of European Infrastructure OPENSCREEN, a biological screening mega-center which involves more than 12 European countries. EU-OPENSCREEN supports all stages of a tool development project, including assay adaptation, high-throughput screening, and chemical optimization of the “hit” compounds.