Drug Discovery and Development Services

Drug Discovery is an emerging pharmacological science that seeks to identify novel small molecule probes and to understand at a molecular level how compounds affect macromolecular process. Cell-based, in vitro mix-and-read, and whole organism assays suitable for rapid or high throughput analysis are being designed and implemented by members of the Molecular Pharmacology Program.  Current molecular targets include Gprotein coupled receptors, vanilloid receptors, cathepsins, apoptosis-inducing proteins, ion channels, steroid receptors, orphan nuclear receptors, kinases, phosphatases, DNA repair enzymes and DNA polymerases.  Chemical libraries and automated screening instrumentation are emphasized, which permit rapid interrogation of optimized assays. Computational approaches and high content cell screening methodologies are employed to facilitate the identification of new chemical probes.

Medicilon is a drug discovery company and offers the drug development services based on cheminformatics – computer aided design including docking molecular, target identification, drug discovery screening – small molecule screening, library screening, ion channel screening – fragment based design, ligand based design, ligand protein binding, protein ligand docking calculation and prediction, drug profiling, lead identification, lead compound identification and lead optimization.

We offer a one-stop service to meet all your drug discovery needs, from target to candidate.  Some of services including:

Hit Identification, Using Virtual or Fragment-Based Approaches
Medicinal Chemistry
Computational Chemistry
Protein Expression and Purification
Biochemical Assay Development
DMPK Analysis
Cell Biology, including Mode of Action Studies

Paradigms in Drug Discovery

Physiology-based: Target is unknown, Physiological/phenotypic read-outs,Cell-based assays
Target-based: Known target, Read-outs are based on activity or expression of target, Biochemical or Cell-based assays

Assay Development for Drug Discovery process

Target identified and Validated -> Assay Development -> HTS

Assays in Drug Discovery

Biochemical Assays (Target-Based)

Measure function of a purified target

– Activity Assays: Enzymes

– Binding Assays: Receptors

Identify compounds that modulate activity / binding of the target protein

– Recombinant proteins, proteins isolated from crude cell lysates

– Monitor a surrogate read-out

Pros:

– Simple

– More consistency

– Direct measurement of target engagement

– Can measure compound characteristics such as Kd, Ki etc.

– Increased specificity of compounds

Cons:

– May be non-physiological

– Not possible to determine compound properties such as membrane permeability,toxicity, off-target effects

Cell-Based Assays (Phenotype-Based)

Measure function of the target in the context of the cell

-Transcriptional read-outs, second messenger levels, cell viability (cell death/apoptosis), proliferation

Measure expression of the target mRNA levels, protein expression and localization
Provide a functional read-out of compound activity

Pros:

– More physiological, amenable to systems approach

– Can simultaneously assay for compound properties (membrane permeability, toxicity, off-target effects)

Cons:

– Complex

– High rate of noise

– Exclusion of less soluble/permeable compounds

We are open to flexible business arrangements for our contract research and drug discovery services, which include:

Fee-for-service projects
Milestone based development projects
FTE based collaboration projects
Participation as SME in publicly granted R&D projects

Contact Us 

Email : marketing@medicilon.com
Tel : +86 021 58591500

Tips:  Above is part of drug discovery and development services, drug design and discovery. You can also CONTACT US with any question or enquiry you may have. We will be happy to discuss your needs in detail and design an appropriate plan of action.