Inpharmatica beefs up proteomics information and analysis platform

Biopendium system provides researchers with enhanced analysis of protein structure-function relationships to speed drug discovery

Inpharmatica (London), a leading innovator in the application of structural bioinformatics to pharmaceutical research, recently announced the release of a new version of its Biopendium, a proteomic information resource and analysis system that enables genome sequence data to be more effectively applied in drug discovery. This latest version offers a considerable increase in the number of potential drug targets providing enhanced drug target selections and validation. Twenty-seven thousand human genes are included in the release in addition to whole genome annotation of the important model organisms C. elegans and D. melanogaster.

Biopendium converts the huge amount of sequence information data generated by the Human Genome Project (HGP) into easily applicable information on protein structure and related function, thus providing a fast track on the road to drug discovery.

"This new version of Biopendium brings significant added capability for drug discovery researchers and maintains Inpharmatica's lead in the field," said David Ricketts, vice president of business development at Inpharmatica. "Today's announcement demonstrates Inpharmatica's ongoing commitment to bringing continual improvements to Biopendium."

"Inpharmatica's latest release of Biopendium brings the increased capacity and intelligence vital to making use of the information now being derived from the human genome," said Ricketts. "Current estimates are that on completion of the HGP, there will be around 50,000 genes from which to select a few thousand potential drug targets. Biopendium provides an indispensable knowledge of protein structure and function which allows researchers to carry out large scale analysis of all available targets and focus specifically on those which may be clinically important."

The Biopendium is developed using Inpharmatica's 1,100 processor system under Linux. This is the most powerful commercial installation in Europe dedicated to bioinformatics. The new version of Biopendium contains over 850 million protein sequence/structure/function relationships, and is the most comprehensive proteomic information resource available.

About Inpharmatica
Inpharmatica develops a unique resource of information relating protein sequences to their structure and function, the Biopendium, which the company applies to enhance the productivity of drug discovery.

Gene sequencing projects have created an overload of data on potential drug targets. However, the challenge that pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies now face is how to identify and select the highest quality targets. Identification of the best targets can significantly enhance drug discovery and improve the rates of attrition during the discovery process i.e. increase the probability of discovering efficacious and safe new drugs.

Inpharmatica's technologies allow it to look beyond gene sequence data and focus on the proteins encoded by gene sequences (the proteome) that are the true drug targets. The company uses its proprietary technologies to perform all-by-all analyses of all known expressed proteins, relating sequences to three-dimensional structures and thus to functions. The company is unique in its ability to consider protein function using sequence/structure relationships, thus allowing the most suitable drug targets to be identified. Furthermore, since the binding of drug compounds to their protein targets is driven by structure, not sequence, the company's technologies provide new insights into the binding of potential drug compounds to their targets.

The company applies its capabilities in drug discovery by establishing collaborations with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. These collaborations may involve the partner company taking out a subscription to Biopendium and using this resource in-house, or involve an exclusive collaboration in a chosen therapeutic area utilising Biopendium and the know-how residing with the company's scientific staff and consultants.

Founded in 1998, the company raised some $6 million in venture funding through Unibio, 3i and GIMV. In January 2000 it entered into a partnership with Parke-Davis (now Pfizer Ann Arbor) involving a subscription to and further developments of Biopendium, and in December 1999 initiated a drug discovery collaboration with Arrow Therapeutics in the anti-bacterials field. The company also has a collaborative agreement with PharmaDesign, Tokyo.

Related article: Inpharmatica installs largest European commercial bioinformatics processor platform

For more information, contact David Ricketts, vice president of business development of Inpharmatica, at 44-207-631-4644 or d.ricketts@inpharmatica.co.uk.

Source: Inpharmatica