Selvita, Poland based integrated discovery partner for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry, announced today an agreement with the Institutes for Pharmaceutical Discovery (IPD) in Branford, CT, USA to provide computational chemistry services to IPD.

The aim of this agreement is to identify novel chemical compounds that inhibit the activity of a novel protein target, proposed by IPD. This target protein was selected as the result of a collaboration between IPD and an academic institution, and may be linked to an important class of human diseases. The compounds identified during this project are expected to demonstrate therapeutic potential as a result of their interaction with the selected protein target. The results of the computational analysis will be experimentally tested in drug discovery research conducted by IPD.

The scope of the project, commissioned to Selvita, includes a druggability study of the targeted protein, followed by a virtual high-throughput screen of structures attainable in public databases, and the interpretation of the "lead-likeness" of the proposed compounds.

"We expect to identify a set of chemical structures possessing the desired characteristics of specific functional inhibitors, with potential therapeutic activity. We are very pleased to be working with Selvita on this novel target," said Paul Beckett, Senior Director, Synthetic Medicinal Chemistry, at IPD.

"We are very pleased that we can cooperate with The Institutes for Pharmaceutical Discovery," said Piotr Prelich, Selvita's VP of Sales and Marketing. "This project is a great chance for Selvita to show the potential of our Computational Chemistry Department. We've assembled an excellent team of experienced target modeling and ligand design professionals and I'm sure we can deliver what IPD desires. We're looking forward to this cooperation very much." 

About The Institutes for Pharmaceutical Discovery, L.L.C. (IPD) - ipd-discovery.com
IPD is a private discovery research company headquartered in Branford, CT. Founded in 1995, IPD is the parent company to the Institute for Drug Discovery, L.L.C. (IDD) and The Institute for Bioanalytics, L.L.C. (IBA). Institutes created by IPD combine the proven business experience of senior pharmaceutical executives with the scientific excellence of industry researchers. IPD's mission is to identify areas of unmet medical need and develop research programs to meet these needs. These institutes conduct drug discovery research or customized bioassay development and license these projects to major life science companies who perform clinical development and obtain regulatory approval.

About Selvita - http://www.selvita.com/ 
Selvita is the largest independent integrated drug discovery provider in Central and Eastern Europe based in Krakow, Poland. The company was established in 2007, and ever since it mission has been to serve our clients with a comprehensive panel of products and solutions targeted at lowering the cost of, and accelerating, the introduction of new drugs to the market. The company employs 113 people including 39 PhDs. Since 2010, Selvita is also the owner of BioCentrum, which provides range of in vitro preclinical ADMET services, biochemistry services with special focus on protein engineering and recombinant protein production. Selvita Group has experience in several areas of life sciences, and offers the following types of projects:   

• Pre-clinical candidate projects derived from research at Polish universities
• Integrated drug discovery projects which include in silico modeling, and synthesis of a target-focused library, lead-optimization and preclinical development.
• Chemistry services, including contract synthesis, synthesis pathway design and optimization, analytical chemistry, as well as computational chemistry services.   
• Biology services, including assay development such as ELISA and cytotoxicity assays, spectrophotometric, fluorescence and fluorescence anisotrophy measurements, as well as cell cycle arrest analysis and apoptosis/necrosis identification
• Advanced protein modeling solutions, based on our proprietary protein modeling platform, as well as services in computational chemistry.