The Drug Discovery Portal (DDP) is based on a unique assembly of highly diverse compounds that are not otherwise commercially available. The compounds are initially used in silico for virtual screening, but they are linked to the originating chemists so that samples are available for physical screening and analogues can be rapidly designed and synthesised in order to understand structure-activity relationships. Hence, you can go quickly from a novel hit to an optimised candidate. The DDP is built on a combination of medicinal chemistry experience and advanced computational chemistry knowledge. Our researchers have extensive experience of the drug discovery process gained from both industrial and academic collaborations and an understanding of the molecular biology and biochemistry associated with molecular targets.
The chemical collection in the DDP has been assembled through links with groups of natural products and synthetic chemists from academic institutions worldwide. Since there are many chemists working with a wide range of chemical classes, this has resulted in an exceptionally diverse collection of small molecules, captured for the first time in the DDP library. Physical samples are rapidly available for assay validation and the DDP provides direct access to the expertise and enthusiasm of the originating chemist for subsequent hit optimisation.
The DDP provides clients with the opportunity to identify novel, druggable hits against their target of choice, using the DDP database of highly-diverse, proprietary compounds. This can be expanded to include compounds from the client's own collection, if desired. The DDP employs both the ligand-based and structure-based screening and can focus on primary or allosteric sites. We have a proprietary algorithm that allows us to identify allosteric sites and protein-protein interaction sites. Allosteric modulators offer greater selectivity and graded control of targets implicated in disease. In addition, because the chemical space surrounding allosteric and protein-protein interaction sites is relatively unexplored, there is greater IP potential, even for well-validated targets.
Access the DDP at: www.ddp.strath.ac.uk
For further information, please contact Research & Knowledge Exchange Services: e: rkes@strath.ac.uk t: 0141 548 3707 f: 0141 552 4409