CRUSH was founded in 2020 to address an acute gap in the landscape of antiviral development. The response to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic demonstrated the high demand and limited provision of facilities and expertise to aid the development of therapeutics and devices targeting high-consequence viruses.

Both in vitro and in vivo systems that support the full SARS-CoV-2 life cycle have been developed, but they must be handled in high containment facilities and require specialised molecular virology expertise. The MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research (CVR) is one of a limited number of UK institutions with the necessary infrastructure and virology expertise to support such studies.

Working in partnership with the CVR, LifeArc has supported the creation of CRUSH as a translational centre for antiviral drug screening and resistance development. CRUSH is a fully integrated hub with the biocontainment facilities and expertise to support small animal studies of high consequence viruses, including SARS-CoV-2.  Proximity to the CVR’s virology expertise, viral genomics and computational biology capabilities further strengthens the CRUSH offering. The University of Dundee Drug Discovery Unit is also a collaborative partner, bringing extensive experience in high throughput drug discovery assays.

CRUSH activities have initially focused on SARS-CoV-2, but this will be a stable and sustainable resource for the UK’s research communities to accelerate drug discovery for any known or novel high consequence virus requiring biocontainment facilities.  A strategic goal of CRUSH and partners is to establish a foundation for broader collaboration and innovation across the Life Sciences sector facilitating access to key expertise for this pandemic whilst creating a path for future preparedness in infectious disease linked to high consequence viruses.