Development of hypoxia-inducible prodrug molecules, engines, and assays for context-dependent small molecule inhibition

开发修饰或抑制特定蛋白质的小分子是加拿大生物技术部门的重要基石，其应用范围从药物开发到工业化学品制造。此外，通过开发具有特定背景作用的小分子的新技术，例如在低氧条件下释放活性小分子，为全球领先提供了一个重要的机会。迄今为止，识别蛋白质功能的小分子修饰物一直是通过在实验室对大型化合物库进行资源密集型筛选来进行的。此外，针对特定背景的小分子的开发被限制在用于合成的一组非常小的可用化学策略上。Cyclica公司开发了突破性的新人工智能技术，通过筛选电子计算机中小分子和蛋白质之间的相互作用，可以进行合理的药物设计。Cyclica还开发了新的平台，可以揭示与蛋白质相互作用所需的小分子中的特定官能团(S)，这有可能揭示大规模上下文相关小分子开发的新策略。Cyclica现在面临着一个关键技术和知识缺口，无法扩展这些人工智能平台，从而允许上下文相关小分子的商业开发。Cyclica Inc.寻求与Ryerson大学的Antonescu博士和Viirre博士建立合作伙伴关系，以弥合化学生物学领域的这些差距，以实现创新的上下文相关小分子支架的新合成，并允许开发生化分析来支持这项技术的测试和规模。以NSERC联盟-OCI创新和生产力代金券(VIP)联合赠款的形式提供支持是必不可少的。

The development of small molecules to modify or inhibit specific proteins represents an important cornerstone of the biotechnology sector in Canada, with applications from drug development to industrial chemical manufacture. In addition, there is an important opportunity for global leadership by the development of new technologies for small molecules with context-specific action, such as release of active small molecules under hypoxic conditions.The identification of small molecule modifiers of protein function has to date been performed by resource-intensive screening of large libraries of chemical compounds in the laboratory. Further, the development of context-specific small molecules has been limited to a very small set of available chemical strategies for synthesis. Cyclica Inc. has developed groundbreaking new artificial intelligence technology that allows rational drug design by the screening of interactions between small molecules and proteins in silico. Cyclica has also developed new platforms that can reveal the specific functional group(s) within small molecules required for interaction with proteins, which has the potential to reveal new strategies for context-dependent small molecule development at scale. There is now a key technology and knowledge gap that Cyclica faces for scaling of these artificial intelligence platforms to allow commercial development of context-dependent small molecules. Cyclica Inc. seeks a partnership with Drs. Antonescu and Viirre at Ryerson University to bridge these gaps in chemical biology to allow novel synthesis of innovative context-dependent small molecule scaffolds, as well as to allow development of biochemical assays to support the testing and scaling of this technology. Support in the form of this NSERC Alliance - OCI Voucher for Innovation and Productivity (VIP) joint grant is essential.