Procept is a member-
Tuesday December 9, 11:26 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
Monsanto Joins Molecular Simulations' Combinatorial Chemistry
Consortium to Accelerate the Research Process
SAN DIEGO--(BW HealthWire)--Dec. 9, 1997--Molecular Simulations Inc. (MSI) and Monsanto (including G.D. Searle)
have signed an agreement to extend the state-of-the-art of combinatorial chemistry technology applied to drug discovery and
lead optimization.
As a member of MSI's Combinatorial Chemistry Consortium, Monsanto scientists in agrochemical and pharmaceutical
research will help in setting the scientific directions for new products delivering library comparison, combinatorial selection,
and a variety of library focusing techniques using structural information of active sites and/or analog-derived structure activity
relationships. Monsanto scientists will also participate in guiding the development of Web-based tools for the synthetic
chemist's desktop based on MSI's WebLab(TM) architecture.
According to Dr. Eugene Logusch, Program Director in Monsanto's Agrochemical Discovery Sector: ''The Monsanto Life
Sciences organization has a serious and long-standing commitment to using combinatorial and high throughput chemistry for
the discovery of biologically active molecules. We view MSI as an important partner in developing valuable computational
tools that ensure our synthesis programs ask and answer the right scientific questions with their chemistry.''
Dr. Salvatore Profeta, Jr., Agriculture Technology Principal Computational Chemist, echoes these sentiments: ''The choice of
MSI to provide the computational infrastructure to support combinatorial chemistry was not one made in haste. We evaluated
several plausible and scientifically robust options. It was clear, however, that MSI, through its Cerius2(R) and WebLab
product lines, was not only committed to addressing the needs of the industrial chemist, but indeed, was delivering tools that
bring reliable computational methods to the desktop for all our chemists, in a graphical environment similar to that of a PC
spreadsheet product.''
''The MSI Combinatorial Chemistry Consortium was particularly attractive,'' Profeta said, ''because software needs to
change to meet the changing needs of our chemists. The Consortium gives us an opportunity to access software which meets
our needs in a timely manner. The Consortium also delivers tools which make it possible for our modeling experts to work
more efficiently, and cover a wider range of projects.''
Dr. Rob Brown, the newly appointed Director of the Consortium, commented on Monsanto's involvement in the project by
noting that Monsanto's broad research interests in both the pharmaceutical and the agrochemical areas hold great promise in
broadening the perspectives within the consortium membership.
The Combinatorial Chemistry Consortium addresses the full scope of the combinatorial chemistry process and is focused on
maximizing the productivity of library design and analysis. Increased integration with informatics solutions provided by
Daylight Chemical Information Systems, MDL, and ORACLE have helped to extend members' chemoinformatics access
within their combinatorial chemistry programs.
Monsanto joins ArQule, Bayer, Cerep, FMC, GlaxoWellcome, Japan Science and Technology Corporation, Queensland
University, PROCEPT, SmithKline Beecham, Teijin, and Vertex as members of the Consortium.
Molecular Simulations Inc. is a leading provider of molecular modeling, simulation, and informatics software to the world's
foremost research and development facilities. Using MSI's innovative products, researchers can organize and analyze
scientific data, share biological and chemical information, and develop novel compounds, materials, and processes. |
