Optibrium and University of Nottingham collaborate on drug discovery

Students at the University of Nottingham will be able to use software to train them in modern drug discovery, thanks to a collaboration with software developer Optibrium.

Optibrium’s StarDrop software is being made available to a number of fourth year MSci chemistry project students at the university to help train them in modern drug discovery. In particular, the software will be used to aid in the design of potential new compounds to integrin inhibition in fibrotic diseases and malaria – as part of a collaboration with GSK.

Optibrium will also teach the students on the use of the software for drug discovery, helping to prepare them for a career in the pharmaceutical industry.

The software will help students characterise properties of known drugs, understand the structure-activity relationships in existing project data and design new candidate compounds using predictive models.

Almost half of the world’s population are estimated to be at risk from malaria and in 2015 the disease was responsible for 445,000 deaths. The World Health Organisation has set a plan to reduce the number of malaria cases and deaths by 90% by 2030. There are worries over resistance to antimalarial treatments, increasing the need for new drugs to treats and block the transmission of malaria.  

Fibrotic diseases are caused by a build of scar tissue in the extracellular matrix of certain organs, in particular the kidneys, liver, lungs and skin. Students at the University of Nottingham will study integrin inhibition and target the disease-causing scar tissue.

Dr Matthew Segall, CEO of Optibrium, commented: “Our partnership with the University of Nottingham gives us the opportunity to engage with students and provide them with access to cutting edge technology in drug discovery. Fibrotic diseases and malaria continue to cause significant mortality and morbidity so we are delighted to help train future medicinal chemists and to work collaboratively to find improved treatment and preventative therapies.”

Thomas McInally, business science fellow in Medicinal Chemistry at the GSK Carbon Neutral Laboratories for Sustainable Chemistry, the University of Nottingham said: “Teaching industry-relevant skills and giving students access to the very latest technologies are critical to develop the next generation of successful drug discovery researchers. Optibrium is supporting us in achieving this by providing access to their world-class StarDrop software and considerable expertise in medicinal chemistry.”