Invenio Biosolutions, a New Delhi based company, has come out with a novel drug discovery software platform - DDAssist (Drug Discovery Assistant) to facilitate the drug discovery process. The process is being used by the scientists at Central Drug Research Institute (CDRI), Lucknow to accelerate their drug discovery research, claimed a company release.

The software helps CDRI in optimising the utilization of its High-Throughput Screening (HTS) facility. CDRI and Invenio Biosolution are in the process of patenting the application, which will be marketed to the worldwide users.

The structure of "hits" generated by screening systems are matched by this software for structures already populated in specific databases, that decide on their potential as apt drug candidates, the release claimed.

DDAssist is developed by a team of scientists, doctors, bioinformaticians, molecular biologists and chemists for those involved in the lead-finding process by rapidly discovering new chemical scaffolds and high-quality drug leads. DDAssist assists scientists to optimize hits, promote in-silico drug designing, and to predict lead compound properties.

The cornerstone of the application lies in four scalable and dynamic databases, populated with heterogenous fields with the universal key field being "compound structures". The "hits" will pass through each database before getting established as a "potential drug candidate". The software application has disease specific databases with extensive and well-researched data on diabetes, dyslipidemia, asthma, cardio vascular and central nervous system disorders. More diseases are being added currently, the release said.

Databases concentrate on the in-use drugs, failed (or withdrawn) drugs, candidate drugs, potential drug targets for G-protein coupled receptors and 3D structures exist in mol/PDB/ENT format with structure matching facility curated data for level of detail.

Invenio Biosolutions offers state-of-the-art solutions, services and information to basic researchers/scientists community in the biotechnology, agrochemicals and pharmaceutical industry. The company specializes in customized solutions & services for those involved in research in science, drug development, molecular biology, biochemistry, medicine, etc. The organization has deep-rooted interests in the healthcare segment as well. Products from Invenio include ClinicAssist, databases on Diabetes, Dyslipidemia, Tuberculosis, Cancer, GPCRs, Cytochrome p450, etc,

Invenio Biosolutions was created by Infrastructure Technology And Trade India Ltd to consolidate its endeavors in the life sciences domain to promote research and development relationships/services world over. The founders recognized that customized bioinformatics solutions play a significant role to meet the specific needs of diverse organizations.