Cellworks Group Inc. and Institute of Life Sciences entered into an agreement for joint research collaboration to enhance drug research and discovery programme.

As part of this collaboration, Cellworks will provide in silico technology and expertise to the ILS research team in the therapeutics areas of oncology, infectious diseases and metabolic syndrome.

The Institute of Life Sciences is a not-for-profit organization in Hyderabad, India formed through the partnership of private industry, Andhra Pradesh State Government and University of Hyderabad. The institute operates as an autonomous body and pursuing research in areas of chemical and biological sciences in order to understand the molecular mechanisms involved in specific diseases and translate this understanding into approaches for discovering novel therapies.

Cellworks Group Inc. provides virtual prototyping solutions enabling drug discovery through predictive studies and analysis. The company technology iC-PHYS is a proprietary in silico platform which provides disease physiology aligned dynamic representative view at the bio-molecular abstraction level. Deployment of this technology is an enabler for discovery teams to reduce development time and cost. Also enables discovery teams to early on qualify biological targets and fast-fail or fast-scale up the development.

"We are aggressively pursuing research in drug discovery programmes in multiple therapeutic areas. We plan to have the complete solution eco-system made available at the institute by mid 2009. Cellworks in silico based platform is the right technology for us to better understand the molecular level mechanism of action of drugs and associated bio-markers. Our partner, with its in-depth expertise in cellular modelling and rich library of in silico based proprietary platforms, has been identified to be the key partner in this emerging area of Systems Biology", stated Dr. Javed Iqbal, director of Institute of Life Sciences.

"We have a great overlap and alignment in terms of therapeutic areas and partnering with the team at Institute of Life Sciences will enable us to have a closed loop system of in silico, in vitro and in vivo studies and experiments. Molecular target based drug discovery is the way forward along with novel biomarkers for personalized medicine solutions. This collaboration opens up great opportunities for global class research followed by out-licensing opportunities", said Taher Abbasi, CEO of Cellworks.