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

小分子修饰或抑制特定蛋白质的开发是加拿大生物技术部门的重要基石，从药物开发到工业化学制造都有应用。此外，通过开发具有特定环境作用的小分子新技术，例如在缺氧条件下释放活性小分子，这是一个重要的全球领导机会。迄今为止，蛋白质功能的小分子修饰剂的鉴定是通过实验室中大量化合物文库的资源密集筛选来完成的。此外，环境特异性小分子的发展仅限于一组非常小的可用化学合成策略。Cyclica公司开发了突破性的新人工智能技术，可以通过筛选小分子和蛋白质之间的相互作用来合理设计药物。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内的特定功能基团，这有可能揭示大规模依赖上下文的小分子开发的新策略。现在，Cyclica面临着一个关键的技术和知识差距，即如何扩展这些人工智能平台，以允许基于环境的小分子的商业开发。Cyclica Inc.寻求与博士合作。Ryerson大学的Antonescu和Viirre致力于弥合化学生物学上的这些空白，以允许创新的环境依赖性小分子支架的新合成，以及允许生化分析的发展，以支持该技术的测试和扩展。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.