InhibOx and the National Foundation for Cancer Research launch DrugFinder, a free virtual screening service

Oxford, UK (19 September, 2008)—InhibOx Ltd has introduced DrugFinder, a free web-based virtual screening service.  It enables research groups in academia, government and industry to exploit an increasingly important starting point for novel drug discovery, namely the crystal structure of a target protein with an inhibitor bound in the active site.

The DrugFinder service follows on from the extremely successful Screensaver Lifesaver project, run from the University of Oxford Chemistry Department (www.chem.ox.ac.uk) by Professor W. Graham Richards in collaboration with the computational chemistry company InhibOx and the National Foundation for Cancer Research (NFCR), with sponsorship at various times from Intel Corporation, Microsoft and IBM.  The Screensaver Lifesaver project, which ran from 2001-2007, enlisted the help of members of the public in more than 200 countries who donated the use of  over 3.5 million personal computers, and was the world’s biggest computational chemistry experiment (www.chem.ox.ac.uk/curecancer.html).  A database of some three billion molecules was screened and a number of predicted hits were subsequently synthesized and tested with very promising results.   Virtual screening clearly works.

The NFCR and InhibOx have joined forces again to create DrugFinder, a virtual screening service using InhibOx’s in-house computing facilities and databases of structures of commercially available small molecules.  Using a web-based interface  (www.inhibox.com/DrugFinder) researchers at universities, research institutes and biotechnology companies will be able to submit a target macromolecular structure with a bound inhibitor.  InhibOx will screen its small molecule database against the target using a combination of docking and ligand-based screening and then return potentially superior inhibitors to the user.  Any intellectual property will be treated confidentially and any results will belong to the group providing the structure.

DrugFinder provides three levels: Bronze, Silver and Gold.  The Bronze service is entirely free of charge and identifies from a database of nearly 1,000,000 molecules up to 100 top compounds that are similar to the bound inhibitor and are predicted to bind to the target, but may have new scaffolds and chemistry.

The Silver service mirrors the Bronze, but performs virtual screening using a larger database of more than 4.6 million molecules and returns ten times more molecules—up to 1,000 of the top hits.  The fee for the Silver Service will be $10,000.  The Gold service, which is likely to follow from the successful discovery of new lead compounds, provides customized access to InhibOx’s full suite of virtual screening and computational chemistry tools and expertise.  Twenty percent (20%) of proceeds from the DrugFinder service will go to the NFCR to support cancer research, and priority will be given to cancer targets.

For further information, please contact:

Paul Finn, CEO

Background Information

About InhibOx

InhibOx is a computational drug discovery company founded in 2001 by Professor W. Graham Richards, Chairman of Chemistry at the University of Oxford and a world leading computational chemist. The company grew from the outstandingly successful Screensaver Lifesaver project that recruited volunteers in over 200 countries who donated the combined computational power of some 3.5 million personal computers, performing the world’s biggest computational chemistry experiment. Subsequently, InhibOx has built up a significant technology platform, including Scopius, a regularly updated database of millions of commercially available chemical compounds. InhibOx is committed to discovering and developing entirely novel, accurate and effective computational methods for drug discovery to improve the productivity of lead and drug candidate identification. For more information, please go to www.inhibox.com.

About NFCR

The NFCR was founded in 1973 to support basic science cancer research in the laboratory. The NFCR’s program of basic science cancer research conducted at both the cellular and molecular levels is leading to better prevention, earlier diagnostic techniques, new treatments, and eventually a cure for cancer.  By supporting the best ideas of the best minds, and by facilitating collaboration among scientists, advances in one field contribute to discoveries in another. This is what NFCR’s “Laboratory Without Walls” makes possible.   Since 1973 NFCR has provided more than $250 million to fund discovery-oriented research that has played a key role in many current breakthroughs in the prevention, diagnosis and new treatments of all types of cancer.  In 2000 the NFCR funded a virtual centre, the Centre for Computational Drug Discovery, directed from Oxford University's Department of Chemistry by Professor Graham Richards.  For more information, please go to www.nfcr.org.