Raleigh – The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) has awarded $1,729,532.72 to Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (CPI) and the University of Arizona to generate in vitro data and develop MegaTransÒ machine learning software for drug discovery.
“The objective of MegaTrans® is to develop a new computational system and tools for integrating human transporter data into drug discovery pipelines, as well as enabling its analysis and visualization. It will also assist with developing computational tools for quantitatively modeling drug-drug interactions of xenobiotics. We will generate data for transporters which currently have a paucity of data in the public domain, use validated machine learning algorithms, access the latest curated datasets and develop a user-intuitive interface and visualization system to enable predictions. MegaTrans® will be developed as commercial quality software and then commercialized by licensing to companies, as well as used in fee-for-service consulting projects. In Phase I of this project, we have collaborated with Dr. Steven Wright and Dr. Nathan Cherrington at the University of Arizona to generate numerous models for important human drug transporters. CPI have also developed the prototype for MegaTransÒ, curating numerous transporter datasets then generating and tested the resulting models. This Phase II award will allow us to perform additional in vitro testing (at the University of Arizona) to expand our models and develop MegaTransÒ further as a commercial product available for licensing by pharmaceutical and other groups so they can benefit from our expertise.” said Sean Ekins, CEO, CPI.
Drs. Stephen Wright and Nathan Cherrington of the University of Arizona are long-term collaborators with Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc. This joint effort builds upon extensive experience and extends the mechanistic understanding of drug disposition to the whole patient by accurately predicting functional disposition. This collaboration is now poised at the forefront of understanding xenobiotic disposition and predicting the mechanistic features that determine human exposure and response to drugs.
We are not aware of any other company pursuing such an approach to both generate new high value datasets or models, performing testing of their own models and creating a wide array of transporter models. MegaTrans® can be applied in these various companies or organizations to aid in decision making or in regulatory submissions.
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The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.
About Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc.® has developed software for data curation and machine learning called Assay Central® (www.assaycentral.org) as well as curated model bundles in MegaTox®, MegaTrans® and MegaPredict®. Most recently we have developed MegaSyn and UV-adVISor. CPI performs research and development on innovative therapeutics for multiple rare and neglected diseases and is located in laboratories in the NC State Incubator at Centennial campus. We have considerable experience with preclinical and computational approaches to drug discovery and toxicity prediction. For more information, please visit http://www.collaborationspharma.com/
About The University of Arizona
The University of Arizona, a land-grant university with two independently accredited medical schools, is one of the nation's top 50 public universities, according to U.S. News & World Report. Established in 1885, the university is widely recognized as a student-centric university and has been designated as a Hispanic Serving Institution by the U.S. Department of Education. The university ranked in the top 20 in 2020 in research expenditures among all public universities, according to the National Science Foundation, and is a leading Research 1 institution with $761 million in annual research expenditures. The university advances the frontiers of interdisciplinary scholarship and entrepreneurial partnerships as a member of the Association of American Universities, the 66 leading public and private research universities in the U.S. It benefits the state with an estimated economic impact of $4.1 billion annually.
https://www.einpresswire.com/article/589055970/collaborations-pharmaceuticals-inc-and-the-university-of-arizona-awarded-a-phase-ii-sttr-award-from-nigms-nih