The Drug Design and Discovery lab runs projects with the basic goal of developing and implementing advanced computer-aided molecular modeling techniques towards the discovery of novel biologically active molecules that can be developed into drugs. Drug discovery is the process through which potential new medicines are identified. It involves a wide range of scientific disciplines, including biology, chemistry and pharmacology.
We implement innovative combinations of molecular modeling methodologies by hybridizing pharmcophore modeling with QSAR analysis; molecular docking and 3D-QSAR (e.g., CoMFA and RSA); and in silico screening to identify (discover), validate and optimize new hits to-ward different targets.
We recently run projects that focus mainly on cancer targets and test all the resulted hits tested on the related cancer cells. These hits tested in the Cell Culture lab at the center.