Win a Trip to ACS Spring 2013 Meeting & Exposition With Optibrium

Enter the StarDrop application note competition to be in with a chance

CAMBRIDGE, UK, 11 June 2012 – Optibrium, developer of software solutions for drug discovery, today announces the launch of its application note competition offering StarDrop users the opportunity to win a trip to the American Chemical Society (ACS) Spring National Meeting & Exposition 2013 in New Orleans, Louisiana. For a chance to win, StarDrop users who use the software in their drug discovery projects are invited to submit an application note demonstrating their innovative use of StarDrop. Optibrium is also providing temporary one-month licences during the competition period to enable those not currently using StarDrop to enter the competition alongside current users.

StarDrop helps to guide decisions on the selection and design of compounds in drug discovery, dramatically reducing the time taken to find effective leads and then transform them into candidate drugs with a high probability of success downstream. StarDrop targets chemistries with a good balance of properties using a unique multi-parameter optimisation approach, chemical space visualisation and intuitive data analysis. Furthermore, StarDrop’s interactive designer with Glowing Molecule™ visualisation guides the exploration of compound design strategies with instant feedback on the impact of changes on a compound’s predicted properties. These core features can be extended with plug-in modules to predict key ADME properties and P450 metabolism, build and validate robust QSAR models of in-house compounds and data, and automatically generate new, relevant compound ideas. The new FieldAlign module, recently introduced in StarDrop 5.2, adds a powerful 3D view of compound interactions that will complement StarDrop’s existing 2D QSAR models. As StarDrop is used throughout the drug discovery process, the competition will attract entries across a number of different applications.

Users can enter the competition by submitting application notes which will then be passed to a panel of experts for judging. Compound structures and data used in the note may be anonymised or omitted for confidentiality. The material judged to demonstrate the most innovative use of StarDrop will gain the author an expenses paid trip to ACS Spring 2013. Full competition guidelines and terms and conditions are available online at http://www.optibrium.com/news/competition.php. Entries to the competition must be received by 31st October 2012.

The ACS National Meeting & Exposition offers attendees the opportunity to deepen their understanding of chemistry and its role in global health, economy and safety, in addition to providing the opportunity to exchange ideas with some of the leading experts in the industry. Each meeting includes over 7,000 presentations highlighting innovative techniques and technological advances whilst the expositions provide attendees with a platform to witness new technologies in use. The competition will allow one innovative StarDrop user to benefit from all the events that the ACS Spring Meeting 2013 promises.

Optibrium will keep its twitter followers abreast of the launch and progress of the competition throughout its duration, so make sure to keep an eye on Optibrium’s Twitter page at https://twitter.com/#!/Optibrium.

About Optibrium Ltd

Optibrium (www.optibrium.com) is dedicated to providing software to guide decisions involving complex, uncertain data in an intuitive way. Based in Cambridge, UK, Optibrium has a global customer base ranging from top-ten pharmaceutical companies to small biotechs and academic groups. Our mission is to continue to develop new technologies that will optimise project strategy, reduce wasted molecules and experiments, shorten timelines and improve the quality of candidate compounds for our clients. Optibrium’s primary product, StarDrop, is focused on the drug discovery industry, helping guide scientists to make decisions in the design and selection of high quality drug candidates. Visit the online community at http://www.optibrium.com/community/ for further discussions on improving the productivity of drug discovery. 

For further press information please contact: Sarah Evans, The Scott Partnership, 1 Whiteside, Station Road, Holmes Chapel, Cheshire CW4 8AA, UK Tel: + 44 1477 539539 Fax: +44 1477 539 540 E-mail: optibrium@scottpr.com.

StarDrop 5.2 Adds New FieldAlign Plug-in Module

Optibrium unveils the first output from its collaboration with Cresset

CAMBRIDGE, UK, 20 March 2012 – Optibrium, developer of software solutions for drug discovery, today announces a new version of its StarDrop™ platform. StarDrop 5.2 features a new plug-in module that provides users with access to Cresset’s FieldAlign™ technology, which offers a unique, 3-dimensional insight into the biological activity of their compounds. This new development is the first result of the technology exchange between Optibrium and Cresset announced earlier this year, and adds another powerful tool to StarDrop that will enable chemists to understand the 3D structure activity relationship (SAR) of their chemistry in order to optimise their compounds.

Achieving a combination of potency with appropriate ADME and safety properties is essential to the discovery of high quality drug candidates. Optibrium’s StarDrop platform helps to identify compounds with a good balance of properties by integrating in silico and experimentally measured data using a unique multi-parameter optimisation approach, chemical space visualisation and intuitive data analysis. StarDrop’s interactive designer with Glowing Molecule™ visualisation guides the exploration of compound design strategies with instant feedback on the impact of changes on a compound’s predicted properties. These core features can be extended with plug-in modules to predict key ADME properties and P450 metabolism, build and validate robust QSAR models of in-house compounds and data, and automatically generate new, relevant compound ideas. The new FieldAlign module in StarDrop adds a powerful 3D view of compound interactions that will complement StarDrop’s existing 2D QSAR models.

FieldAlign provides a unique insight into the biological activity, properties and interactions of molecules. Using fields, biologically meaningful comparisons can be made that are not limited by two-dimensional structure. FieldAlign is a powerful molecular design and 3D SAR tool that allows the molecular fields of multiple compounds to be compared in their bioactive conformations. By highlighting both similarities and differences between molecules, FieldAlign shows where and how lead molecules bind to their protein target. This enables regions of active molecules that can be replaced, to be quickly identified, to perfect the design of a new lead compound. Furthermore, given the 3D structure of an active molecule and a series of 2D compound structures, FieldAlign will generate the best 3D alignment for the compounds, scored and ranked according to their field similarities with the known active. With this information, small compound libraries can be screened to look for novel series with greater structural diversity, and the design of focused libraries can be optimised for synthesis or initial screening.

Version 5.2 also introduces new enhancements of StarDrop’s core capabilities, in particular a flexible tool for performing automatic R-group analysis. This new feature analyses a chemical series to interactively visualise the impact of variations to R-groups, linkers, atoms or fragments on compound properties to help chemists to further understand the SAR of their chemistry and identify new optimisation strategies.  StarDrop can also enumerate the full, combinatorial library to explore the properties of compounds that have not yet been synthesised and identify potential missed opportunities.

Matt Segall, CEO of Optibrium, commented “We are excited to be able to provide a great range of new features to our users, continuing to extend StarDrop’s seamlessly integrated environment that helps to guide the efficient identification of high quality compounds. We are particularly pleased that our new collaboration with Cresset has so quickly yielded an important new capability for the StarDrop platform and look forward to continuing to work with Cresset on further joint projects.”

StarDrop 5.2 will be launched at the upcoming American Chemical Society Spring Meeting and Exposition in San Diego, CA, March 25-29. Visit Optibrium’s stand (#1419) for a first sight of this exciting new release. Further information on StarDrop can also be found at www.optibrium.com or by calling +44 1223 815900.

About Optibrium Ltd

Optibrium (www.optibrium.com) is dedicated to providing software to guide decisions involving complex, uncertain data in an intuitive way. Based in Cambridge, UK, Optibrium has a global customer base ranging from top-ten pharmaceutical companies to small biotechs and academic groups. Our mission is to continue to develop new technologies that will optimise project strategy, reduce wasted molecules and experiments, shorten timelines and improve the quality of candidate compounds for our clients. Optibrium’s primary product, StarDrop, is focused on the drug discovery industry, helping guide scientists to make decisions in the design and selection of high quality drug candidates. Visit the online community at http://www.optibrium.com/community/ for further discussions on improving the productivity of drug discovery.  

For further press information please contact: Sarah Evans, The Scott Partnership, 1 Whiteside, Station Road, Holmes Chapel, Cheshire CW4 8AA, UK Tel: + 44 1477 539539 Fax: +44 1477 539 540 E-mail: optibrium@scottpr.com.

About Optibrium Ltd

Optibrium (www.optibrium.com) is dedicated to providing software to guide decisions involving complex, uncertain data in an intuitive way. Based in Cambridge, UK, Optibrium has a global customer base ranging from top-ten pharmaceutical companies to small biotechs and academic groups. Our mission is to continue to develop new technologies that will optimise project strategy, reduce wasted molecules and experiments, shorten timelines and improve the quality of candidate compounds for our clients. Optibrium’s primary product, StarDrop, is focused on the drug discovery industry, helping guide scientists to make decisions in the design and selection of high quality drug candidates. Visit the online community at http://www.optibrium.com/community/ for further discussions on improving the productivity of drug discovery.  

For further press information please contact: Sarah Evans, The Scott Partnership, 1 Whiteside, Station Road, Holmes Chapel, Cheshire CW4 8AA, UK Tel: + 44 1477 539539 Fax: +44 1477 539 540 E-mail: optibrium@scottpr.com.

Optibrium and Cresset Announce Technology Collaboration

Technology exchange combines unique methods for design of novel, high quality compounds in drug discovery

CAMBRIDGE, and WELWYN GARDEN CITY, UK, January 4th, 2012 – Optibrium, a provider of software solutions for drug discovery, and innovative software and services provider Cresset, today announce an agreement to collaborate on the development of next-generation platforms. The innovative companies will work together, combining unique approaches to help drug discovery projects quickly identify novel, potent compounds with a high chance of success downstream.

The collaboration will involve a two-way exchange of technologies: Optibrium’s ADME models, currently provided as a plug-in module for its StarDrop™ software platform, will be made available to users of Cresset’s desktop applications. Similarly, Cresset’s FieldAlignTM software, which helps chemists understand the three-dimensional structure-activity-relationship of their chemistry in order to design active compounds, will be made available as an optional plug-in module for StarDrop, which helps project teams to confidently target compounds with a good balance of properties for their therapeutic objectives.

Achieving a combination of potency with appropriate ADME and safety properties is essential to the discovery of high quality drug candidates. Cresset’s molecular field technology provides unique insight into the biological activity, properties and interactions of molecules, which enables biologically meaningful comparisons that are not limited by two-dimensional structure. Optibrium’s StarDrop platform helps to guide decisions on the design and selection of compounds by integrating in silico and experimentally measured properties using a unique multi-parameter optimisation approach, chemical space and Glowing Molecule™ visualisations and predictive modelling.

Dr. Matthew Segall, CEO of Optibrium, said, “We are very happy to be working with the team at Cresset. This collaboration furthers our aim to deliver leading edge in silico technologies directly to the desktop of all drug discovery scientists through StarDrop’s user friendly, interactive interface. The new FieldAlign module in StarDrop will bring a powerful 3D view of compound interactions that will complement StarDrop’s existing 2D QSAR models.”

Dr. Robert Scoffin, CEO of Cresset, added “This collaboration is an excellent opportunity for two companies to combine talents and technologies in order to offer a better product to our combined customers. This highlights the power of bringing together complementary technologies from leading-edge companies to better address problems in Drug Discovery.”
The technology shared under this collaboration will form new components in upcoming releases of Optibrium's StarDrop and Cresset's desktop applications. Full details of these exciting new developments will be announced soon.

For more information about StarDrop and Optibrium’s software solutions please visit www.optibrium.com, alternatively please call +44 (0) 1223 815 900 or email info@optibrium.com.

For more information about Cresset’s software and service solutions please visit www.cresset-group.com, alternatively please call +44 (0) 1707 356 120 or email sales@cresset-group.com.

About Optibrium Ltd
Optibrium (www.optibrium.com) is dedicated to providing software to guide decisions involving complex, uncertain data in an intuitive way. Based in Cambridge, UK, Optibrium has a global customer base ranging from top-ten pharmaceutical companies to small biotechs and academic groups. Our mission is to continue to develop new technologies that will optimise project strategy, reduce wasted molecules and experiments, shorten timelines and improve the quality of candidate compounds for our clients. Optibrium’s primary product, StarDrop, is focused on the drug discovery industry, helping guide scientists to make decisions in the design and selection of high quality drug candidates. Visit the online community at http://www.optibrium.com/community/ for further discussions on improving the productivity of drug discovery.
About Cresset Group Ltd

Cresset develops software for calculating and comparing the molecular Field characteristics of chemical compounds. Field technology uses the surface properties of molecules to evaluate their activities and properties, rather than relying on 2D structure similarity, which enables Cresset’s users to find more interesting, novel and relevant results than other methods. Cresset’s Fields provide a smarter, structure independent way of hit-finding, lead switching and lead optimization in drug discovery and other chemistry-based research projects. Cresset’s Field technologies have been successfully applied to a very wide range of target classes, with and without structural information, on over 100 projects for major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. www.cresset-group.com

For further press information please contact:

Sarah Evans, The Scott Partnership, 1 Whiteside, Station Road, Holmes Chapel, Cheshire CW4 8AA, UK Tel: + 44 1477 539539 Fax: +44 1477 539 540 E-mail: optibrium@scottpr.com

Or

Carolyn Butchers Alto Marketing Limited, Office 3, Universal Marina, Crableck Lane, Sarisbury Green, Southampton, Hampshire, SO31 7AL Tel +44 (0)1489 557672 Email: carolynb@alto-marketing.com

Optibrium Expands StarDrop Availability with Apple Mac Compatibility

Delivering Enhanced Functionality to Guide Decisions in All Stages of Drug Discovery

CAMBRIDGE, UK, October 18, 2011 – Optibrium, a provider of software solutions for drug discovery, today launches StarDrop 5.1, an upgraded version of its innovative support tool which helps drug discovery scientists to guide key decisions in drug discovery and quickly achieve successful project outcomes. As a result of this upgrade, StarDrop’s unique capabilities to guide the design and selection of high quality, novel compounds are now available on the Apple Mac, a reflection of the increasing popularity of Macs within the industry.

The revolutionary StarDrop 5.1 is a powerful yet user friendly software package which combines predictive capabilities with intuitive approaches to quickly and confidently target compounds with a good balance of properties, thereby reducing wasted effort and speeding progress to identify effective lead and candidate drugs. StarDrop’s unique approach to ‘multi-parameter optimisation’ explicitly accounts for the uncertainty in drug discovery data, whether due to experimental variability or predictive error, to provide scientists with a rigorous, objective analysis on which to make rational decisions.

As well as compatibility with the Apple Mac, StarDrop 5.1 brings a number of significant enhancements to existing features of StarDrop. For example, there is a new method for creating ‘chemical space’ visualizations based on the latest machine learning algorithm for ‘visual clustering’, that helps to easily explore the diversity of a project’s chemistry and identify ‘hot spots’ of high quality chemistry for further investigation.

There are also improvements to StarDrop’s plug-in modules: The Auto-Modeller™ sees the addition of the ‘Random Forests’ technique to its extensive repertoire for building predictive models tailored to a project’s chemistry and data. The addition of this new method has also led to improved QSAR models in the ADME QSAR module, which provides predictions of key ADME properties. StarDrop’s P450 metabolism module has been upgraded to provide improved prediction of regioselectivity and lability of metabolism by Cytochrome P450 enzymes, specifically around N-oxidation pathways. Finally, in response to user feedback on the new Nova™ module, further advances allow the generation of novel, relevant compounds ideas, prioritised against a project’s required property profile, starting from multiple initial structures and filtered according to user-specified rules to avoid unwanted substructures.

Dr. Matthew Segall, CEO of Optibrium, explains “These latest developments within StarDrop 5.1 demonstrate Optibrium’s commitment to deliver leading-edge technology while simultaneously responding to user feedback in order to ensure that it is accessible in the most user-friendly way. We work with drug discovery scientists, project leaders and R&D directors to provide tools that support confident decision-making to focus resources and improve efficiency.”

For more information about StarDrop 5.1 and Optibrium’s software solutions please visit www.optibrium.com, alternatively please call +44 (0) 1223 815 900 or email info@optibrium.com

About Optibrium Ltd
Optibrium (www.optibrium.com) is dedicated to providing software to guide decisions involving complex, uncertain data in an intuitive way. Based in Cambridge, UK, Optibrium has a global customer base ranging from top-ten pharmaceutical companies to small biotechs and academic groups. Our mission is to continue to develop new technologies that will optimise project strategy, reduce wasted molecules and experiments, shorten timelines and improve the quality of candidate compounds for our clients. Optibrium’s primary product, StarDrop, is focused on the drug discovery industry, helping guide scientists to make decisions in the design and selection of high quality drug candidates. Visit the online community at http://www.optibrium.com/community/ for further discussions on improving the productivity of drug discovery.
For further press information please contact: Sarah Evans, The Scott Partnership, 1 Whiteside, Station Road, Holmes Chapel, Cheshire CW4 8AA, UK Tel: + 44 1477 539539 Fax: +44 1477 539 540 E-mail: optibrium@scottpr.com

Optibrium Launches New Version of Free StarVue App

Providing an Enhanced Solution for Viewing Compound Structures and Data in Drug Discovery

CAMBRIDGE, UK, July, 19, 2011 – Optibrium, a provider of software solutions for drug discovery, today launches a new version of StarVue, its innovative free desktop application that enables scientists to quickly and conveniently view sets of compound structures and related data. The latest version of StarVue can be downloaded free from Optibrium’s on-line community at www.optibrium.com/starvue/.

Optibrium Announces Free Models to Predict Toxicity of Compounds

StarDrop’s Glowing Molecule Provides Visual Link between Chemical Structure and Predicted Toxicities

CAMBRIDGE, UK, May, 25, 2011 – Optibrium, a provider of software solutions for drug discovery, announces the availability of a range of models to help predict the toxicity of potential new compounds. Optibrium has generated a range of Quantitative Structure Activity Relationship (QSAR) models of key toxicity endpoints, based on data made available by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as part of its Toxicity Evaluation Software Toolkit (T.E.S.T.). The toxicity prediction models were built with the Auto-Modeller module of the newly launched StarDrop 5 and are available to all StarDrop users free-of-charge. To find out more and download the models please visit Optibrium’s on-line community at http://www.optibrium.com/community.

Whether compounds are intended as drugs, cosmetics, agrochemicals or for other industrial applications, it is essential to understand their potential to cause toxic effects. Understanding this can allow scientists to prioritise chemical structures for further research or identify the most appropriate downstream experiments to confirm their safety. However, the ability to predict toxicities in compounds can be extremely challenging.
Models have a high degree of uncertainty in the predictions they make due to the complexity and variety of chemical and biological mechanisms that lead to toxicities.