DRAFT 1

Free hit identification service

A new free hit identification service is to be launched. It will enable research groups in academia and biotechnology companies to exploit the increasingly important starting point for novel drug discovery whereby there exist crystal structures of target proteins with an inhibitor bound in the active site.

The project follows on from the extremely successful screensaver project run from the University of Oxford Chemistry Department by Professor Graham Richards with funding from the National Foundation for Cancer Research and sponsorship at various times from Intel Corporation, Microsoft and IBM. That project which ran from 2001-2007 involved over 3.5 million personal computers in more than 200 countries and was the world’s biggest computational chemistry experiment. The results of that screening of a database of some three billion molecules were passed to the Oxford University spin-out company Inhibox Ltd which has had a number of the predicted hits synthesized and tested with very promising results. Virtual screening clearly works.

Now the National Foundation for Cancer Research and Inhibox Ltd are going to offer a similar service using the company’s own in-house computing facilities and databases of molecular structures. By going to a web site [….] researchers in universities or biotechnology companies will be able to submit a structure of a bound inhibitor. Inhibox will screen its commercial database and then provide to the academic or biotechnology company, in excess of 100 potentially superior inhibitors. Any intellectual property will remain that of the group providing the crystal structure and be transferred in confidence.

This service will be provided through three service levels: Bronze, Silver and Gold. The Bronze service will be entirely free of charge and will identify compounds from the database which are similar to the bound inhibitor, but offer the possibility of new scaffolds and chemistry.

The Silver service mirrors the Bronze , but in addition the molecules identified as being novel potential inhibitors will be optimized and the binding scored. Up to 1000 predicted superior inhibitors will then be passed to the collaborating partner for a fee of $10,000, while for the Gold service, likely to follow from the successful discovery of new lead compounds, a customized arrangement will be made for the individual partner with Inhibox providing a full virtual screening and computational chemistry service. A proportion of any revenue will be returned to the NFCR to support cancer research and in all cases priority will be given for cancer targets.


To be sent to:

Nature; Science; C&E News; Chemistry World; FT; University Press Office etc