Molsoft LLC and the Structural Genomics Consortium at the University of Oxford Announce Software Co-Development and Research Collaboration

Press Release: San Diego, CA., August 10th, 2004 - Molsoft LLC and the Structural Genomics Consortium at the University of Oxford Announce Software Co-Development and Research Collaboration

San Diego, CA., August 9th, 2004 - The Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC-Toronto and SGC-Oxford) has been formed to determine the 3D structures of proteins of relevance to human health, and to place this information into the public domain without restriction. The SGC is an UK-Canadian collaboration funded by both the public and private sectors and is located at the Universities of Oxford and Toronto.

Molsoft, LLC is a San Diego company that develops new breakthrough technologies in computational chemistry and biology. Molsoft is committed to solving intellectually challenging problems in drug discovery and computational biology. Molsoft has built proprietary computational environments including the ICM suite of programs for molecular modeling, bioinformatics, cheminformatics and ligand docking; BEE, a high-performance scripting language for data management, analysis, and visualization; and MolCart, a database cartridge for versatile and fast chemical searches. Molsoft offers software tools and services in lead discovery, modeling, cheminformatics, bioinformatics, and corporate data management, forms partnerships with biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, and is the recipient of several NIH and DOE-sponsored awards.

Molsoft and SGC Oxford will collaborate to develop a technology/methodology platform for structural and chemical informatics. Ruben Abagyan PhD (Founder of Molsoft LLC) said, "We are very excited about this collaboration between SGC and Molsoft. Three-dimensional structures of proteins hide many secrets about their function, pockets, surfaces, flexibility, therapeutic potential, etc. Helping to unveil these secrets is a great challenge for the ICM program. We need to start looking at those structures with better tools and appreciate that they are not just a bunch of atomic coordinates."

The platform will be developed to ensure compatibility with systems other than the system at SGC Oxford. The systems will follow Molsoft's existing, standard format and will be developed for an easily recognizable look and functionality and will include:

1. A Research Informatics (Cheminformatics) Platform including a suitable database for handling data in the clone to structure process, including LMW protein ligands; and

2. A Protein Structure Database visualization tool for SGC structures based on the Molsoft XPDB

SGC Oxford and Molsoft will use the Molsoft BEE and BEE-GUI programming languages, the Molsoft BeeHive platform, the MolCart database, the Molsoft ICMBrowser and ICMBrowserPro and the Molsoft XPDB to create a visualization system for the SGC research community. When the SGC protein structure database is released, the Molsoft's ICMBrowser will be made available free of charge to the public for viewing the structures.

Dr. Abagyan added that "The SGC collaboration will allow researchers to gain insight into the structures of proteins that hold the key to the development of therapeutics for a wide range of diseases. We are honored that SGC chose Molsoft to be their bioinformatics partner in this project and that our products will be used worldwide to analyze and visualize data released by SGC to the public domain."