This post was adapted from its original source on Ontario Genomics’ news page and can be viewed here.
Validating and Improvement of in silico Proteome Screening and Drug Design Technologies by Experimental Drug Discovery for Neurodegenerative Diseases
PROJECT LEADERS: ANGUS MCQUIBBAN (UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO), ZHENG LI (CYCLICA INC.)
GENOME CENTRE: ONTARIO GENOMICS
TOTAL PROJECT FUNDING: $2.3 MILLION
TORONTO, CANADA (July 23, 2019) An important contributor in the decline of productivity in pharmaceutical development is the traditional focus on single target drug design, in which molecules are designed for one protein target. In practice, however, a drug is likely to interact with a number of proteins, sometimes up to 300 in the body, leading to unforeseen and adverse side effects. Cyclica intends to mitigate this problem by using their proprietary Ligand Design™ and Ligand Express® drug discovery platform. Ligand Design is a multi-targeted and multi-objective in silico drug design platform, and Ligand Express is a cloud-based and AI-augmented off-target profiling and target deconvolution platform that computationally determines polypharmacological profiles. Taken together, Ligand Design and Ligand Express offer an integrated platform to design advanced lead like molecules that minimize off-target effects, while providing insights into structural pharmacogenomics. The team at Cyclica and McQuibban Lab will seek to identify novel solutions for Parkinson’s disease, which will be commercialized jointly by Cyclica and Rosetta Therapeutics. The McQuibban Lab has established assays to substantiate the Cyclica AI predictions. It is expected that these validated platforms will assist Cyclica in further quantifying the benefits of their platforms, including the potential time and resources saved during drug development.