Cheminfostream

The Ferryman and Spela

Barry is now a lucky, happy and just married man to Spela

http://barryhardy.blogs.com/theferryman/2012/11/a-shared-moment-of-great-happiness.html

Innovation in Predictive Toxicology

The preliminary program with schedule for the #OpenTox InterAction Meeting in Munich in August has been loaded at:
Innovation in Predictive Toxicology
9-12 August, Munich, Germany
http://www.opentox.org/meet/opentox2011/opentox2011

Abstracts for the poster session and awards are still being accepted through June at:
https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=opentox2011

There is no registration fee to attend the conference but places are limited to 100 attendees.
Please complete the registration application form while still available at:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/opentox2011

Collaborative development of predictive toxicology applications

The following initial paper on OpenTox has now been published and is available in preliminary form:

Collaborative development of predictive toxicology applications
Barry Hardy, Nicki Douglas, Christoph Helma, Micha Rautenberg, Nina Jeliazkova, Vedrin Jeliazkov, Ivelina Nikolova, Romualdo Benigni, Olga Tcheremenskaia, Stefan Kramer, Tobias Girschick, Fabian Buchwald, Joerg Wicker, Andreas Karwath, Martin Gutlein, Andreas Maunz, Haralambos Sarimveis, Georgia Melagraki, Antreas Afantitis, Pantelis Sopasakis, David Gallagher, Vladimir Poroikov, Dmitry Filimonov, Alexey Zakharov, Alexey Lagunin, Tatyana Gloriozova, Sergey Novikov, Natalia Skvortsova, Dmitry Druzhilovsky, Sunil Chawla, Indira Ghosh, Surajit Ray, Hitesh Patel and Sylvia Escher
Journal of Cheminformatics 2010, 2:7 (31 August 2010)
http://www.jcheminf.com/content/2/1/7

Please feel free to circulate in the community and to your contacts who might be interested. Thanks!

And a special thanks to all who have contributed to advancing this work, including our advisors, and growing community of friends, interactions and partners!

Barry

Our approach to drug design

I have posted the detailed program for the eCheminfo Oxford 2010 Drug Design Workshop (26 - 30 July 2010) at http://barryhardy.blogs.com/cheminfostream/2010/05/echeminfo-2010-drug-design-workshop-in-oxford-detailed-program.html.

and you can download the program as a pdf from here:

Download ECheminfoDrugDesignBrochure-OX710-web1

During the workshop we will apply a variety of design and modelling methods to drug discovery problems guided by workshop leaders with expertise in the approaches used. A case study approach will additionally be followed so that groups can work together throughout the week on their case study problems. The case studies will also be developed virtually before the workshop week with support extended afterwards for further work including experimental testing of interesting results and hypotheses developed. Case studies will include neglected disease targets and challenging kinase design problems.

A combination of design techniques including pharmacophores, ligand-based screeening and docking will be applied to problems. Additionally the use of consensus methods and prediction rules to optimally combine predictions from multiple methods will be studied. Prediction results across structures and methods will be displayed across a collaborative dashboard for interactive library design. ADME and toxicology predictions will be carried out for library structures and incorporated in decision rules. The use of quantum mechanical methods to more accurately model ligand and protein interactions and refine scoring will be studied. Fragment-based approaches will be applied to the design of molecules with promising chemistries. Physiologically-based simulations will be used to study the pharmacokinetic properties of structures and their application to lead optimisiation.

Through the time spent working and discussing together combined with the availability of a variety of leading software and expert support from workshop leaders, workshop participants should take home ideas and learning to help accelerate their own projects. The location and atmosphere in Oxford is also an ideal background for networking, getting to know your peers and joining the ongoing eCheminfo community of practice activities. As is often common with eCheminfo gatherings the workshop usually attracts a variety of backgrounds including industry, academia and government research instititutes and from many different countries. Non-cheminformatics specialists from different areas of chemistry and biology often participate and bring an interdisciplinary interaction to the groups.

I hope you can join us!
Barry

PS: I have posted some photos from last year at http://barryhardy.blogs.com/cheminfostream/2010/05/some-photos-from-the-echeminfo-drug-discovery-oxford-2009-workshop.html

eCheminfo 2010 Drug Design Workshop in Oxford - Detailed Program

The detailed program for the eCheminfo Drug Design Workshop which will take place in Oxford 26 - 30 July 2010 is provided below.

eCheminfo Drug Design Workshop

Drug Discovery Design Methods & Applications
Medical Sciences Teaching Centre, Oxford University, Oxford, UK
26-30 July 2010

You can download a copy of the program as a pdf:

http://barryhardy.blogs.com/files/echeminfodrugdesignbrochure-ox710-web1.pdf

A second workshop week devoted to predictive toxicology and ADME will take place the week of 2-6 August 2010.

Detailed Workshop Program

Monday July 26
08.30 Registration Open
09.00 Overview of Workshop Activities, Presented by Barry Hardy (Douglas Connect)
We will review the approach to the workshop including group work and case studies.
09.15 Insights into Kinase Structures and Ligand Design, led by Jeffrey Wiseman (Pharmatrope) and Barry Hardy (Douglas Connect)
An overview of design strategies for kinase targets will be presented and discussed including:

- Analysing the Kinome and Kinase Families
- Biology of Human and Parasitic Kinases
- Target Selection & Validation
- Modelling Target Structures
- Kinase Inhibition Features and Ligand Design Strategies
- Addressing Potency and Selectivity Issues

12.00 Lunch
13.00 Structure-focused Pharmacophores for the Identification of Novel, Led By Gerhard Wolber (Inte:Ligand)
Virtual screening using 3D pharmacophores has been established as an important and commonly used technique for virtual screening in recent years [1]. Using several current biological targets we demonstrate methods supported by the software tool (LigandScout), which allows for rapid and transparent development of high-quality 3D pharmacophores. Besides the easy and automated creation of such models from protein/ligand complexes, LigandScout provides intuitive pharmacophore overlay and interpolation workflows based on a robust and fast chemical-feature-based alignment algorithm. The underlying methods are scientifically published [2-4] and based on several years of experience in pharmacophore creation. The full-featured 3D graphical user interface makes the exploration of the active site and pharmacophore creation within the protein-ligand complex user-friendly and transparent. Binding site analysis, pharmacophore-based alignment and the creation of shared feature models are designed to make the drug discovery workflow more efficient. In this half-day workshop we will demonstrate how to derive structure- and ligand-based pharmacophores using the LigandScout modelling environment and how to use them for fast and accurate virtual screening. Model validation [5] and predictivity assessment will include Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves and enrichment analyses. Class members working in small groups will be able to apply the pharmacophore methods during the week to their case studies.

References
[1] Langer T., Hoffmann R. D. Pharmacophores and Pharmacophore Searches; VCH/Wiley, Methods and Principles in Medicinal Chemistry, Vol. 32, R. Mannhold, H. Kubinyi, G. Folkers, series editors, ISBN: 3527312501 (2006)
[2] Wolber G., Seidel T., Bendix, F., Langer T. Molecule-pharmacophore superpositioning and pattern matching in computational drug design;.Drug Discovery Today. 2008 Jan ;13 (1 2):23-9.
[3] Wolber, G.; Dornhofer, A. A.; Langer, T.; Efficient overlay of small organic molecules using 3D pharmacophores; J. Comput. Aided Mol. Des.; 2007; 20(12); 773-788.
[4] Wolber, G.; Langer, T.; LigandScout: 3-D Pharmacophores Derived from Protein-Bound Ligands and Their Use as Virtual Screening Filters; J. Chem. Inf. Model; 2005; 45(1); 160-169.
[5] Kirchmair, J. et al. Enhancing drug discovery through in silico screening: strategies to increase true positives retrieval rates. Curr. Med. Chem.; 2008; 15; 2040-2053.

16.00 Group Work and Discussion on Workshop Case Study Problems
18.00 Poster Session with Refreshments and Food

Tuesday July 27
08.45 Shape and Electrostatics in Virtual Screening and Lead Hopping, Led By Paul Hawkins (OpenEye)
This session will focus on two tools that utilise very similar approaches for two different purposes: ROCS for shape-based virtual screening and lead-hopping and BROOD for lead-hopping and bioisostere identification using shape and electrostatics. In the ROCS section the workshop participant will learn about searching in shape space, using shape in virtual screening and the visual query editor vROCS. The vROCS editor will be used to generate queries for virtual screening or lead-hopping experiments. Using vROCS we will learn how to merge multiple molecules into a single query, edit molecules in a way that separates the structure of a molecule from the idea of a query, and validate the queries that class members generate in retrospective virtual screens. The workshop participants will learn about robust statistical methods that can be applied to virtual screening experiments and will use these methods to compare queries that they generate, enabling them to choose the best query for prospective experiments. In the BROOD workshop section, class members will learn how shape and electrostatic similarity can be applied at the fragment level (for lead-hopping and isostere replacement) and will learn how to use the BROOD Graphical User Interface (GUI). The GUI will be used to generate an isostere replacement query and to run that query against a large pre-generated database of fragments. Class members working in small groups will be able to apply the screening methods during the week to their case studies.

11.30 Group Work on Workshop Case Study Problems
13.00 Lunch

14.00 Consensus Strategies for Challenging Dockings, Led By Alessandro Contini (University of Milan)
The attention toward protein-protein interactions as potential targets for the design of very specific drugs dramatically increased during the last few years. The binding regions involved in protein-protein interactions are rarely deep and well-defined cavities, as found in the active site of an enzyme, but are often characterized by solvent-exposed clefts on the protein surface. This feature makes the definition of a reliable docking protocol quite challenging.

This workshop will be focused upon the development of a docking protocol for the identification of small organic molecules potentially able to interfere with the interaction of two target proteins (hereafter referred as proteins A and B). The study will cover two possible scenarios:

1) The crystal structure of the AB complex is available;
2) The structure of either A or B is available co-crystallized with a known inhibitor.

In both scenarios we will analyze the complex, finding and fixing all possible sources of error and preparing the model for docking experiments (fixing missing residues, assigning the correct protonation state, relaxing the structure through short molecular dynamic runs followed by geometry minimizations). A docking protocol will then be realized and tested through the docking of small databases of compounds with known activity. The results of both scenarios will be compared and discussed.

As consensus between different computational methods might be a key to improve the success rate of a virtual screening procedure, an alternative docking protocol will be also realized by using a different method and software. The two protocols will be tested within a virtual screening case study and those hits identified by each single protocol will be compared to those identified by both protocols applied on a consensus basis.

16.30 Group Work on Workshop Case Study Problems
18.00 End of Workday
18.00 Punting Trip (Weather Permitting)

Wednesday July 28
8:45 Theory to Application: How Quantum Mechanics can be Applied to Structure-Based Drug Discovery, Led by Lance Westerhoff (QuantumBio)
Traditionally, linear scaling, quantum mechanics-based (QM-based) methods for characterization of target/ligand complexes have been better suited to academic environments as they are sometimes difficult applications to access in the industrial domain. Recently, QuantumBio has bridged that gap through the development of several QM-based interaction profiling tools specifically tailored to the structure-based drug discovery process. When plugged into MOE, these tools – including scoring, pair-wise interaction energy decomposition, and QSAR – become better integrated with the workflows commonly used in the field. To date, this work has lead to the development of three major MOE svl plugins: MOE/QMScore, MOE/NMRScore, and MOE/QM-PWD. We are now able to prepare any number of QM simulations using the MOE graphical user interface (GUI), execute the simulations in parallel using MOE's message passing infrastructure, and finally import the results back into the MOE GUI for further analysis.

As a use case, these QM simulations have been carried out for a series of protein kinase B inhibitors derived from fragment (FBDD) and structure-based drug design (SBDD). These protein-ligand complexes were selected because they represent a consistent set of experimental data that includes both crystal structures and affinities. Seven scoring functions were constructed based on a mixture of several quantum- and molecular- mechanical methods. The optimal models obtained by statistical analysis of the aligned poses are predictive as measured by a number of standard statistical criteria and validation with an external data set. Together, this model provides residue-based contributions to the overall binding affinity, and these results are treated using both native MOE analytical methodologies and customized widgets including the QM-PWD Interaction Energy (IE) Map, Structure/Activity Relationship (SAR) Map, and results tables. The IE map highlights the most important residues for ligand binding, while the SAR Map highlights residues that are most critical to discriminating between more and less potent ligands. Taken together the Interaction Energy and SAR Maps provide useful insights into drug design that would be difficult to garner in any other way.

Class members working in small groups will be able to study together the setup of the QM methods during the workshop applicable to their case studies. As calculations can be computationally-intensive, we will offer the possibilities of running computations both before and after the workshop, made available through a collaboration environment.

11.30 Group Work on Workshop Case Study Problems
13.00 Lunch

14.00 Virtual High-Throughput Screening: A Powerful Strategy for Drug Discovery, Presented by Katie Simmons (University of Leeds and SimBioSys Inc.)
In silico molecular docking techniques, such as virtual high-throughput screening (VHTS), are powerful approaches to the discovery of new enzyme inhibitors. Additionally, de-novo design is a complementary strategy for inhibitor discovery. Here, by using the structural features present within the enzyme only, new inhibitor designs are built-up sequentially according to the requirements of the targeted binding site. Therefore, de-novo design is an important technique to use in parallel with VHTS in a particular hit identification campaign, as a good de-novo design program will examine structural space larger by many orders of magnitude than that of most virtual libraries currently used for this purpose.

We have recently applied both the de-novo molecular design computer program SPROUT, and the VHTS program eHiTS to a number of therapeutically attractive enzyme targets and have, in the majority of cases under study, rapidly identified inhibitors in the micromolar range or better.

References
(1) Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters, Volume 19, Issue 23, 1 December 2009, Pages 6770-6774
(2) Discovery of novel non-peptide inhibitors of BACE-1 using virtual high-throughput screening, N. Yi Mok, James Chadwick, Katherine A.B. Kellett, Nigel M. Hooper, A. Peter Johnson, Colin W.G. Fishwick; doi:10.1016/j.bmcl.2009.09.103, J. Med. Chem. 2009, 52, 2683 - 2693
(3) Structure-Based Design, Synthesis, and Characterization of Inhibitors of Human and Plasmodium falciparum Dihydroorotate Dehydrogenases, Matthew Davies,Timo Heikkila, Glenn A. McConkey, Colin W. G. Fishwick, Mark R. Parsons, and A. Peter Johnson; Mol Microbiol. 2009 Apr;72(2):335-43. Epub 2009 Mar 3.
(4) The nature of Staphylococcus aureus MurA and MurZ and approaches for detection of peptidoglycan biosynthesis inhibitors; Blake KL, O'Neill AJ, Mengin-Lecreulx D, Henderson PJ, Bostock JM, Dunsmore CJ, Simmons KJ, Fishwick CW, Leeds JA, and Chopra I.

14:30 User-friendly Ligand-based Filtering and Docking: Results Analysis and Visualization, Led by Katie Simmons (University of Leeds and SimBioSys Inc.)
Participants in this workshop will experience applying different methods and tools that can make virtual screening more productive. eHiTS LASSO is a ligand-based filter that uses the chemical features of a ligand surface to create a pseudo-pharmacophore for rapid screening of large databases. eHiTS is an accurate fragment-based docking program for both virtual screening and binding pose prediction of ligands. CheVi is an advanced visualization package specifically designed to help users analyze how ligands interact with receptors. In addition, CheVi acts as a front-end graphical user interface to run eHiTS LASSO and eHiTS screening and docking jobs.

The workshop will describe a typical work-flow from database to lead and show how tools from SimBioSys can make the process more effective using the plasmodium falciparum dihydroorotate dehydrogenase inhibitor, A77-1726 as an example. Users will get a hands-on lesson on how to use all the tools described above, with specific attention to analysis of interaction results.

Class members working in small groups will be able to apply the virtual screening methods during the week to their case studies.

Participants will also take home: A free unlimited version of the CheVi visualization tool and a two month evaluation version of eHiTS and the eHiTS LASSO.

16.45 Group Work on Workshop Case Study Problems
18.00 End of Workday

Thursday July 29
8.45 Fragment-Based Ligand Design: Teaming up Medicinal and Computational Chemists, Led by Peter Oledzki (BioSolveIT)
Lead discovery often starts from small fragment binders for which experimental evidence has been found in an active site. Development into a lead structure can involve three possible scenarios: a) to grow from these 'needles' into the depths of the pocket; b) merging multiple overlapping binders into a single potent lead; or c) the more difficult prospect of linking two or more fragments into one compound with optimized potency.

These tasks can now be accomplished computationally with a novel software tool, LeadIT, which was primarily designed for mixed medicinal and computational chemistry teams. Synthetically accessible compounds can be generated in seconds using fragment based design by using an indexed 3D fragment library of fragments. We will elucidate the basic principles of the approach and give examples which map onto experimental data and evolve into novel lead ideas. Workshop participants may then proceed to working on individual hands-on exercises and application of the methods to their case study problems.

11.30 Group Work on Workshop Case Study Problems
13.00 Lunch

14.00 Driving Lead Optimisation through exploitation of pharmacokinetic properties predicted from early ADME inputs: a role for physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modelling , Led by Simon Thomas (Cyprotex)
Physiologically based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modelling provides a powerful means of integrating ADME and physicochemical data to predict in vivo pharmacokinetics in humans and pre-clinical animals. Predictions of pharmacokinetics (PK) from ADME data can enhance the ability to select compounds that are most likely to have appropriate PK in vivo. The determination of physicochemical and ADME properties during early drug discovery ('early ADME data') enables PK prediction to be performed at any stage from lead identification onwards. PK prediction thus serves to integrate the data from various ADME/physchem screens – whether in vitro or in silico – greatly increasing their value over and above that of the raw data alone. In particular the role of sensitivity analysis – in which the effect of uncertainty in an input property on the value of an output (predicted) property is quantified – is a powerful tool for informing, and helping to direct – chemistry during lead optimisation.

In this workshop, the focus will be on understanding the fundamentals of PBPK modelling, the use of appropriate ADME and physicochemical data as inputs, and the utilisation of results during early drug discovery. For case study investigation of various aspects of PK prediction, participants will have access to Cloe® PK and Cloe Predict® HIA (Human Intestinal Absorption) software. These are powerful, yet intuitive, web-based programs using PBPK models for PK prediction. Their simple data inputs and comprehensive reporting make them suitable, not only for ADME/PK scientists, but also for medicinal chemists and biologists. In addition to the prediction of PK properties, the use of univariate and multivariate sensitivity analyses as an aid to directing chemistry optimisation will be investigated.

16.30 Group Work on Workshop Case Study Problems
18.00 End of Workday

Friday July 30
9.00 Experimental Testing of Predictions
We will review the experimental design and planning for the testing of predictions.
10.00 Group Work on Workshop Case Study Problems
12.00 Group Presentation of Workshop Case Study Results
13.00 Lunch

14.00 Group Work on Workshop Case Study Problems
16.00 Group Presentation of Workshop Case Study Results

17.00 End of Workshop

More Information & Registration

More information on program at http://echeminfo.com/COMTY_oxfordworkshop10
or contact echeminfo -at- douglasconnect.com with your inquiries.

Online Registration
http://echem2010-dd.eventsbot.com/

Bursary Award Applications, eCheminfo Oxford 2010 Workshops

We will be holding the eCheminfo workshops in drug discovery and predictive ADME/tox again in Oxford this summer.  In addition to exposure to a variety of methods, software and hands-on exercises, groups will work together on case studies throughout the workshop week.  This year we will also include the potential to be involved in collaborative case studies supported by the Synergy project and running for several months before and after the workshop, including the potential to participate in the development and use of OpenTox web services in predictive toxicology (http://www.opentox.org/)

The 5 day workshops take place in consecutive weeks.  The application deadline for the bursaries is February 12, 2010.

eCheminfo Drug Discovery Workshop, July 26-30, 2010
Drug Discovery Design Methods & Applications:  Virtual screening, structure-based drug design, cheminformatics and molecular modelling supporting drug discovery and design, a Hands-on 5 Day eCheminfo Workshop. Case Study approach including Kinases.

eCheminfo Predictive ADME/Tox Workshop, August 2-6, 2010
Applications of Predictive ADME and Toxicology methods, a Hands-on 5 Day eCheminfo Workshop. Case Study Approach on ADME and Tox endpoints, datasets and predictive modelling.

The workshops will be facilitatated by Barry Hardy, eCheminfo Community of Practice (http://www.echeminfo.com/). They will take place at the Medical Sciences Teaching Centre, Oxford University, Oxford, UK in a classroom of 45 dedicated workstations on which we will install a wealth of software for you to work with.

Bursary Award available (deadline February 12, 2010).

Bursary Awards will be used to support the attendance of a selection of academic participants at the workshops. To apply for the bursary please send an email with a) description of your research (ca. 500 words); b) your training needs (ca. 500 words), c) your CV to echeminfo -[at]- douglasconnect.com by 12 February 2010.  Please also specify which workshop or both you are interested in.

For further information and questions on the Workshop programs, please contact Dr. Barry Hardy at: echeminfo -[at]- douglasconnect.com, Tel:  +41 61 851 0170
For registrations, please contact Nicki Douglas, echeminfo -[at]- douglasconnect.com, Tel:  +41 61 851 0461

eCheminfo Virtual Community Activities in Cheminformatics

When I started the eCheminfo community of practice in late 2003 we focused initially on using the approach of virtual conferencing and communications to get the community started.  More recently I have given more attention to developing face-to-face conference and workshop activity and initiating collaborative research. While on this journey it has been personally rewarding to have met and made contact with hundreds of scientists in the international community and to additionally be involved in supporting their networking, career development and research in drug design, discovery and modelling. It has also been rewarding to have just met so many great people and to have had the chance to interact with them, be it on a computer, in a workshop exercise, or on a punt trying to get down the river as we usually do when we are in Oxford.  So far we seem to be better on computer-based physics than boat physics!

And so I have come full circle and can see the need to prioritise the virtual community aspects of eCheminfo further again, to support the continuation of all these worthwhile interactions in the community.  So LinkedIn is one place to start.  I have been on there for some years and we have had a group area, but have not really done much with it.  It has primarily been useful for some introductions between people.  However recent feature additions for discussion, posting of news, job announcements etc. have been added, so it seems worthwhile to try using it more for supporting continuing interactions in the community.  So I am initiating today invitations to the eCheminfo community to join us there for discussion, news and networking on what is happening in the world of drug discovery informatics, cheminformatics, bioinformatics, etc.  Use of the group is intended for scientific and professional exchange purposes only.  As included in our mission we encourage cross-disciplinary cross-sector participation so from medicinal chemists in the pharmaceutical industry through toxicologists in government institutes through PhD students working on their modelling research problems are welcome!

To request joining the eCheminfo LinkedIn group please follow the following link and introduce yourself with a group joining request:

https://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/1173/77EB680070FF/

I also really welcome suggestions from the community there on what you would like to see as further developments in coming years!

Barry

eCheminfo 2009 Drug Discovery meeting at Bryn Mawr - call for contributions

We will hold our fifth annual eCheminfo community of practice meeting on drug discovery informatics at Bryn Mawr College, Philadelphia 13 -16 October 2009.

We invite contributed papers from members of academic, government research and commercial organizations on areas of new research and innovation involving drug discovery research informatics. The work presented should involve innovative new method development or application to drug discovery problems and involving methods from computational chemistry, computational biology, cheminformatics or bioinformatics. Studies including experimental work in medicinal chemistry, screening, in vitro assay development, pre-clinical evaluation, lead optimisation and translational medicine are welcome.

Abstracts for talks (300-500 words) should be submitted to echeminfo -[at]- douglasconnect.com by 31 March 2009, and be accompanied by a short biography of the presenting author (300-500 words). Abstracts approved by the scientific organizing committee will be selected for scheduling on the conference program. Authors will be notified of acceptance as soon as a review of submitted materials takes place and at the latest by 15 April 2009. Abstracts for posters will continue be accepted for review through 31 August 2009.

The following sessions are currently planned:

Pre-conference Workshop on Drug Binding Affinities
chaired by Scott Brown (Abbott Laboratories) and Judith Lalonde (Bryn Mawr College)

Structure-Based Drug Design: The Roles of Conformation, Water and Hydrogen Bonds
chaired by Alan Cheng (Amgen)

Macromolecular Interactions and Networks
chaired by Emil Alexov (Clemson University)

Structure-Based Drug Design: Advanced Scoring Methods
chaired by Natasja Brooijmans (Wyeth)

Data Analysis and Visualisation Applications in Chemical Biology
chaired by Brian Marsden (Structural Genomics Consortium Oxford)

PDB Ligands
chaired by John Westbrook (Rutgers University)

Predictive Toxicology
chaired by Vladimir Poirikov (Russian Academy of Medical Sciences) and Richard Judson (US EPA)

Schedule for InnovationWell and eCheminfo Autumn 2008 Community of Practice Meeting

I provide below a schedule for the upcoming InnovationWell and eCheminfo Community of Practice meetings at Bryn Mawr.

I also include a location map here which may be useful upon arrival:

Download bryn_mawr_campus_map_douglas_connect_meeting.pdf

[Please follow continuation here to view schedule.]

Chemogenomics eCheminfo cheminformatics chemoinformatics bioinformatics Medicinal Chemistry Computational Chemistry Virtual Screening Molecular Modelling Molecular Modeling pharmaceutical pharma meeting workshop training Oxford Critical Path toxicology Bursary Life Sciences Pharma Drug Discovery Research and Development Drug Development Healthcare Innovation Knowledge Management events

Accurate Calculation of pKas

The assignment of protonation state and accurate calculation of local pKa in macromolecular structures can be an important factor in understanding and simulating biological systems. The assignment of protonation states is a difficult computational problem because of uncertainties related to conformation, solvent salts and other interactions.

On 15 October 2008 we will hold an eCheminfo Community of Practice conference session at Bryn Mawr College to be chaired by Paul Labute (President, Chemical Computing Group), to present recent methods related to macromolecular pKa prediction as well as techniques and issues related to methods validation.

A description of the session with presentation abstracts follows:

Accurate Calculation of pKas

http://echeminfo.com/COMTY_confprog08pkas

(Please follow continuation here to read abstracts.  Comments can be made at the end.)