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Peakdale and BioLeap collaborate on drug-like kinase library
Chapel-en-le-Frith, UK, March
30, 2005 – Peakdale Molecular, UK, and BioLeap, US, have
entered into a collaboration to design and synthesise highly focused kinase
libraries for drug discovery, with the initial project targeting the c-Abl
Tyrosine Kinase. By combining BioLeap’s leading edge computational
fragment-based design capabilities with Peakdale’s innovative chemistry
expertise, the collaboration is set to produce drug like compounds that
produce high quality, patentable leads for the pharmaceutical industry.
The new libraries will focus on tyrosine kinase
targets and will expand the current Peakexplorer™ collections that comprise
over 5000 novel GPCR screening compounds. Protein kinases play a crucial role
in signal transduction and also in cellular proliferation, differentiation and
various regulatory mechanisms. The inhibition of growth-related kinases,
especially tyrosine kinases such as c-Abl Tyrosine Kinase, has the potential
to provide new therapies for diseases such as cancer.
Of particular interest to Peakdale’s chemists is
BioLeap’s proprietary technology that rapidly calculates the free energies of
interaction between small molecular fragments and biomolecular structures,
displaying the distribution and orientation of these fragments. One immediate
benefit of this technology is the prediction of sites where tightly bound
waters can be identified that cannot be seen in crystallography due to their
high entropy. This information provides a unique insight into how small
molecules bind into key protein binding sites that cannot be achieved from the
static crystal structure alone, or from methods that can only measure the
enthalpic properties of binding. In addition to lead discovery, the
quantitative free-energy based analysis of protein-ligand interactions adds
significant value to the lead optimisation process. This information will
allow Peakdale’s chemists to design novel compounds with better drug-like
properties than existing compounds.
Commenting on the collaboration, BioLeap’s Gerry
Evans noted, “Peakdale is known for its ability to create novel chemical
structures for pharmaceutical research and this fits very well with BioLeap’s
expertise in providing unique binding information on key biological targets.”
Ray Fisher, Peakdale Commercial Director, added,
“This collaboration is about taking existing compounds, that are known to bind
to the c-Abl Tyrosine kinase, and improving their drug-like qualities through
the use of x-ray crystallography, computational fragment-based design and
innovative chemistry. We will also benefit from BioLeap’s expertise in kinase
targets.”
Dr Fisher continued, “BioLeap’s
technology will also be used to provide an in silico fragment approach to
ligand design by identifying parts of the protein target that could bind to
small fragments. In turn Peakdale’s chemists are skilled at assimilating this
data and converting this knowledge into new designs for screening compound
libraries.”
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About Peakdale Molecular Peakdale Molecular was founded in 1992. Today, the Company’s customers include global pharmaceutical majors and an increasing number of biotechnology companies. Its team of chemists combines experience in pharmaceutical R&D and process development, fine chemicals, parallel synthesis and medicinal chemistry to deliver unique chemistry solutions to a range of drug discovery challenges. Peakdale operates in several distinct markets providing novel screening compounds, GPCR-targeted libraries, catalogue intermediates, custom synthesis and contract research chemistry. Further information about the Company can be obtained at www.peakdale.co.uk. About BioLeap BioLeap’s technology is a very accurate and scalable method for first-principles modeling of how water and chemical fragments interact with druggable targets, including DNA & RNA. The technology uniquely accounts for: - Rigorous free energies - Multibody solvent structures - 3-way protein-water-ligand interactions - Structured/embedded waters BioLeap derives this information from large-scale biophysical computer simulations incorporating proprietary advances in statistical sampling methods. Additional information is available on the web at www.bioleap.com.
Enquiries:
Dr Gareth Jenkins Peakdale Molecular Tel: +44 (0) 1298 816700 Email: gareth.jenkins@peakdale.co.uk
Gerry Evens
BioLeap
Tel: +1 2153712874
Email:
gerry.evans@bioleap.com
Media Enquiries:
Dr Marc Egelhofer
Northbank Communications
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