Chemistry

The Global Discovery Chemistry (GDC) Group is at the center of drug discovery research at NIBR, focusing on the design and synthesis of potential drug molecules. Spanning several disciplines from computational and experimental chemistry to automation and robotics, they work in teams to study these new molecules and select those that have the greatest potential to help patients.

Disease Area Chemistry
Disease Area chemistry units work in close collaboration with the NIBR Disease Areas on early-stage discovery projects from the synthesis and testing, to the ultimate selection of a drug candidate.

Hit finding chemistry
The Hit Finding Chemistry (HFC) Unit involves synthesizing compounds that have a large diversity of properties, or specific properties for a targeted application. This group is concerned with the identification of attractive chemical starting points for difficult, but validated, targets or approaches.

Hit-to-lead optimization
The Hit-to-lead Optimization Unit (HLO) is involved in modifying and optimizing the properties of promising compounds for improved binding to the target and reducing potential toxicity.  They work in close collaboration with all Disease Areas as well as with the Molecular and Developmental Pathways Group.

Chemogenetics
The Chemogenetics (ChemG) chemists work closely with the Molecular and Developmental Pathways Group to test chemical compounds for their effect on the expression of genes and proteins to determine their impact on different molecular pathways and determines how to make them more selective and potent.  Chemogenetics conducts cell-based screening, as opposed to the more common target-based screening, which looks at the whole cell to find potential protein targets which interfere in a signalling pathway.

Computer-Aided Drug Design
The Computer-Aided Drug Design (CADD) group replicates chemical interactions and properties onto computers. Their task is to find ways to predict how chemical compounds and disease targets might behave and interact, in order to make the search for new drugs more efficient.  These predictions are determined by using structure-based models, combinatorial library designs driven by specific sets of properties, cheminformatics software calculations, and database comparisions of ADME/toxicology in novel compounds.  

Preparations, Separations and Bioreactions
The Preparations, Separations and Bioreactions (PSB) group provides expertise and services in three domains: preparative-scale chemical synthesis, separation technologies of biologically active compounds, and biochemical transformations.

 

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