Winners of the 2nd EU-OPENSCREEN/SLAS Machine Learning Challenge
At SLAS 2026 in
Boston, EU-OPENSCREEN and SLAS announced the winners of the second joint
Machine Learning Challenge, a global effort that demonstrates the power
of open, high-quality screening data.
Forty-one international teams developed predictive models for UV/visible
transmittance and fluorescence of small molecules using curated
datasets derived from approximately 100,000 chemically diverse compounds
generated through EU-OPENSCREEN’s bioprofiling activities. In total,
465 models were submitted across academia, non-profit organisations, and
industry.
Team “Yumiz” (Ohue Laboratory)
achieved the highest performance in transmittance prediction with a
multimodal ensemble integrating 1D, 2D and 3D molecular representations.
Team “Microsomes” (Meiji Pharmaceutical University)
led the fluorescence task using a sequential stacking strategy
combining quantum mechanical descriptors and graph neural network
embeddings.
This
challenge illustrates a core strength of EU-OPENSCREEN: enabling
community-driven innovation by providing access to robust experimental
datasets. By lowering barriers to high-quality screening data, we help
accelerate AI development for chemical biology and early drug discovery.
Detailed reports will be published in SLAS Technology in 2026.
EU-OPENSCREEN’s European Academic Compound Library (EACL) is approaching
10,000 compounds — strengthening one of Europe’s most accessible and
diverse screening collections.
Over
the past few months, the central compound management facility at
EU-OPENSCREEN ERIC (Berlin) has been collecting compounds submitted by
chemists from various institutions such as Karlsruhe Institute of
Technology (Molecule Archive), University of Ulm and Griffith University
(Australia).
In
this first batch of 2026, 2.112 compounds were sent to EU-OPENSCREEN
bioprofiling and screening partner sites for testing and will also be
incorporated into future screening campaigns, allowing them to be
evaluated in additional biological assays.
We
look forward to sharing the results with the contributing researchers
and continuing to support the chemical biology community.
European Commission Recognises the Industry Liaison Office
The European Commission has highlighted EU-OPENSCREEN’s Industry Liaison
Office (ILO) as a success story — recognising its impact in bridging
academia and industry.
Established under EU-OPENSCREEN-DRIVE, the ILO has already launched six
technological projects across Europe, supporting areas such as
high-content screening and medicinal chemistry. Collaborative
developments include advanced assay technologies such as NanoBRET and
CETSA, delivered in partnership with leading industrial and academic
stakeholders.
ILO Forum in Santiago de Compostela
The model is now expanding under the IMPULSE
project to support new scientific and technological nodes strengthening
collaborationsThe next in-person ILO meeting will take place on 17
March 2026 in Berlin.
Read the complete article by the European Commission at:
IMPULSE Winter Training School, January 2026, Madrid
Between 26–30 January 2026, EU-OPENSCREEN
IMPULSE co-organised a Winter Training School at CSIC (Madrid) together
with the TargetRNA MSCA Doctoral Network, and the Fragment-Screen.
The programme brought together 33 PhD and postdoctoral researchers from
17 countries for training within the topics of RNA biology and drug
discovery. Participants benefited from a line-up of 15 international
speakers, who covered topics such as target identification, validation,
lead discovery, computational approaches, and responsible innovation.
Through initiatives such as this Winter School, EU-OPENSCREEN IMPULSE
supports early-career researchers by helping them build confidence,
learn about new areas of research, exchange ideas and interact with
experts
RAFIKI: Building Sustainable Drug Discovery Capacity in Africa
Last week, RAFIKI project partners from across Europe and sub-Saharan
Africa gathered in Nairobi to celebrate the achievements during the
first year of our RAFIKI project, which strengthens capacity for drug
discovery and development across sub-Saharan Africa.
Considerable progress has been made during the first year of the
project: Five fellowship exchanges were completed, a 25-member
mentorship programme launched, an in-person hands-on drug discovery
workshops was hosted by the University of Stellenbosch, compound
libraries and CDD Vault infrastructure established, online training and
webinars delivered, and importantly, Europe-African and African-African
collaborations were strengthened.
RAFIKI General Assembly Meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, Feb 2026
A highlight was the joint community
engagement event, which was co-organised with our sister consortium “GC
ADDA” (Grand Challenges African Drug Discovery Accelerator) and our
partner host, the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI). RAFIKI and
GC ADDA introduced our initiatives to more than 100 representatives from
KEMRI, policymakers, parliamentary health representatives, procurement
stakeholders, and key actors shaping the health and research landscape.
Importantly, recovered “TB Champions” joined this community engagement
event and they provided a powerful in-person testimony of their
months-long journey. A moving pre-produced documentary, created with the
support of Dr. Jane Ong’ang’o of the Centre for Respiratory Diseases
Research at KEMRI, underlined the need for better treatments and the
critical importance of sustained investment in drug discovery research
for infectious diseases, and demonstrated the real societal impact that
research infrastructures and capacity strengthening initiatives can have
on people’s lives.
UNLOOC: Strengthening Organ-on-Chip Technologies for Drug Discovery
Within the European Chips Joint Undertaking project UNLOOC,
EU-OPENSCREEN leads biological validation of organ-on-chip systems —
ensuring that emerging models meet the robustness and reproducibility
standards required for drug discovery.
UNLOOC consortium partners gathered during the Month-18 meeting in Zaragoza, November 2025
Since summer 2025, validation efforts have
accelerated, with partner sites USC and CIPF in Spain assessing new
models and coordinating validation strategies. This work was further
advanced at the Month-18 consortium meeting in Zaragoza in November
2025, where workshops aligned biological validation with system
integration across the consortium.
Validation is advancing across several use cases, including models of
skin, lung, blood–brain barrier, and multi-organ systems. By
contributing screening expertise and quality standards, EU-OPENSCREEN
helps translate organ-on-chip innovation into reliable tools for
biomedical research.
FASS: Expanding Access to Advanced Solubility Assessment
Presentations of ORYL F1 system
The FASS project in February 2026, took part in the IMPULSE Lunch
Webinar Series to showcase recent progress in solubility assessment
technologies. FASS project partner, Orly Tarun (founder of Oryl
Photonics) presented a talk on “ORYL F1: Using Solvent Response and
Ultrafast Linear Light Scattering to Track Solubility and Aggregation of
Drug-like Compounds.”
ORYL F1 at University of Santiago de Compostela
Following the instrument’s successful
development last year, current efforts focus on validating and expanding
the FASS solubility platform at our partner site, the University of
Santiago de Compostela (USC). The webinar highlighted the long-term
objective of making the platform accessible to EU-OPENSCREEN partner
sites and the wider research community.
Collaborations are actively welcome!
Visit the project website for details and contact:
A Validated Cell Painting Protocol for Large-Scale Profiling
EU-OPENSCREEN researchers published a validated Cell Painting protocol
for systematic morphological profiling of compound libraries.
The assay enables robust linkage between compound targets or pathways
and phenotypic signatures, supported by detailed workflows for image
acquisition, analysis, and downstream data processing.
This work reinforces EU-OPENSCREEN’s commitment to high-quality,
reproducible phenotypic screening methodologies that benefit the wider
scientific community.
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