Molecular/genetic data to innovate Cyclica's in silico pipeline

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Cyclica Inc. is an internationally recognized, Toronto-based biotechnology company. Cyclica's goal is to reshape drug discovery by identifying high-activity and highly-specific protein inhibitors. Proteins are a main building block of cells, and are also used in enzymatic reactions outside of cells. Specifically inhibiting unwanted or non-specific protein activities has tremendous potential and impact across many industries including pharmaceuticals, agriculture, and chemical synthesis. Using computational biophysics and artificial intelligence, Cyclica has developed innovative software-as-service models to target a specific protein activity of interest. Their two products meet this goal by: 1) developing a new small molecule initiator (LigandDesignTM), or, 2) identifying a pre-existing compound to test for new applications (LigandExpressTM, Matchmaker). The Sabatinos lab is collaborating with Cyclica to test and refine their Matchmaker technology for new uses. Dr. Sarah Sabatinos (Ryerson University, Toronto) will use yeast cells to test how Matchmaker can help to repurpose already-approved drugs. The Sabatinos lab will use drug sensitivity tests and microscopy to clearly define the effects of compounds selected by Cyclica's technology, and compared to the desired/predicted effects. Our combined goal is to refine Cyclica's compound-selection methods against data from a non-human cell model, expanding the potential utility. We aim to develop a "Repurposing Index" to guide small molecule choice in drug repurposing studies. This work is important to promote training and improve biotechnology, drug discovery, and predictive computational tools in Canada.