Scientific
Applications:
LINUX GRID CLUSTERS BOLSTER
PHARMACEUTICAL RESEARCH
Locus Pharmaceuticals Inc, a privately held pharmaceutical company focused
on
developing novel, small molecule therapeutics, announced the initiation of a
research collaboration with DuPont Crop Protection to discover and develop
novel compounds for agricultural crop protection.
Under the agreement, Locus will apply its proprietary computational
technology
to discover and develop novel small molecule compounds that have activity
against key protein targets identified by DuPont Crop Protection.
In addition, Locus will obtain exclusive rights to such targets for human
therapeutic uses. Under the agreement, Locus will receive reimbursement of
research costs and also milestone and royalty payments from DuPont Crop
Protection.
Other specific terms of the agreement were not disclosed. "The
collaboration
with DuPont Crop Protection, an agriculture industry leader, enables Locus to
broaden its human therapeutic drug discovery pipeline while providing DuPont
with novel lead compounds that may have broad utility in agricultural crop
protection," commented H. Joseph Reiser, Ph.D. president and Chief Executive
Officer of Locus.
About Locus Pharmaceuticals
Locus Pharmaceuticals is a privately held pharmaceutical company focused on
developing novel, small molecule therapeutics to address major unmet medical
needs.
Locus combines powerful and proprietary computational technologies with one
of
the world's fastest Linux-based supercomputer clusters to simultaneously
identify relevant binding sites on protein disease targets and rapidly
generate novel, small molecules that bind specifically to those protein sites.
In contrast to other computational approaches, the Locus technology requires
only a high-resolution, 3-dimensional structure of the target protein to
implement its drug discovery process.
Presently, Locus Pharmaceuticals is synthesizing and testing novel drug
candidates for the treatment of debilitating and life-threatening human
diseases including HIV/AIDS, cancer, arthritis, and inflammation.
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