Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany has entered into a licensing agreement with Cyclica Inc. for the use of Ligand Express, a cloud-based in silico proteome screening platform.
Ligand Express is a structure-based and artificial intelligence (AI) augmented proteome screening platform that is being used to uncover novel targets that are modeled to interact with a small molecule.
The year-long agreement will enable Merck KGaA to quickly and efficiently elucidate mechanisms of action, evaluate safety profiles, and explore additional applications for a number of its investigational small molecules, including those identified in highly disease-relevant phenotypic screens.
Traditional development of small molecule therapies focuses on specific, disease-associated protein targets. However, once a drug enters the body, it interacts with dozens, if not hundreds, of proteins before it is eliminated from the body.
With Ligand Express, it is possible to capture a unique panoramic view of the proteome for a given small molecule. As the technology can model the ways in which a small molecule will interact with all proteins (of known structure), it can help identify both ‘on-targets’ (interactions that may have a desirable effect on a certain disease), as well as ‘off-targets’ (interactions that may cause an adverse effect).
(Source: Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany)
Filed Under: Drug Discovery and Development
