Selvita signs computational chemistry services agreement with IPD

Selvita, a Polish integrated discovery partner for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, has entered into an agreement with the Institutes for Pharmaceutical Discovery (IPD), a private discovery research company based in Branford, Connecticut, US, to provide computational chemistry services.

The aim of the agreement is to identify novel chemical compounds that inhibit the activity of a novel protein target, proposed by IPD. This target protein was selected as the result of a collaboration between IPD and an academic institution, and may be linked to an important class of human diseases.

The compounds identified during this project are expected to demonstrate therapeutic potential as a result of their interaction with the selected protein target. The results of the computational analysis will be experimentally tested in drug discovery research conducted by IPD.

The scope of the project, commissioned to Selvita, includes a druggability study of the targeted protein, followed by a virtual high-throughput screen of structures attainable in public databases, and the interpretation of the ‘lead-likeness’ of the proposed compounds.

‘We expect to identify a set of chemical structures possessing the desired characteristics of specific functional inhibitors, with potential therapeutic activity,’ said Paul Beckett, senior director, synthetic medicinal chemistry, at IPD.

‘This project is a great chance for Selvita to show the potential of our computational chemistry department,’ said Piotr Prelich, Selvita’s vp of sales and marketing. ‘We’ve assembled an excellent team of experienced target modelling and ligand design professionals and I’m sure we can deliver what IPD desires.’