BioAscent Enhances its Computational Chemistry Services

Hits:570   Date: 5/6/2021

Ongoing recruitment strengthens teams in all areas of integrated discovery

 
NEWHOUSE, UK (May 4, 2021) – BioAscent, the leading provider of integrated drug discovery services, has appointed Dr Angelo Pugliese as Associate Director of In Silico Discovery and Data Analysis to lead the company’s computational chemistry service. As well as enhanced computational chemistry capabilities, BioAscent has also strengthened its medicinal chemistry team with the appointment of Dr Duncan McArthur as Associate Director. The new appointments underline the company’s continuing growth in all areas of drug discovery services.
 
Computational chemistry, molecular modelling, CADD (Computer-Aided Drug Design), cheminformatics and data analysis applications help reduce R&D costs and time and add valuable scientific insights. BioAscent’s computational drug designers use a state-of-the-art hardware and software platform and can, for example, run ultra-large virtual screenings of billions of compounds in a ligand-based fashion, and millions of compounds in a structure-based fashion. Full computational chemistry services include: In silico target assessment; Protein modelling; Ligand modelling; Library design; In silico hit finding; Protein-ligand interaction analysis; Fragment-based drug design; Lead optimisation; Cheminformatics; and Machine learning and data analysis.
 
Headed by Dr Pugliese, a highly experienced computational chemist with over 15 years’ experience working across different organisations in the US and UK, and co-author on more than 30 publications, BioAscent’s computational chemistry team works in concert with its medicinal chemistry and biosciences groups, applying the right computational methodologies to help drive successful drug discovery projects for our customers.
 
The recently appointed Associate Director Medicinal Chemistry, Dr McArthur, has worked in the pharmaceutical and not-for-profit sectors for over 18 years. With broad scientific expertise in oncology and other therapeutic areas, working in both lead finding and lead optimisation project teams, Dr McArthur is expert in fragment-based hit finding strategies and developing HTS campaigns.
 
Commenting on the appointments Paul Smith, BioAscent’s CEO, said: “Access to state-of-the-art equipment and facilities is one aspect that sets us apart, however it’s the calibre of our scientific team that’s the real basis of our success, especially with innovative and virtual biotechs. Which is why we’ve moved to appoint senior scientists with the expertise of Angelo and Duncan. They join a team of over 50, dedicated to delivering successful drug discovery projects efficiently and cost-effectively for our clients.”
 
For more information, about BioAscent, visit https://www.bioascent.com/ 
 
BioAscent Discovery Ltd.
Founded in 2013, BioAscent is a leading provider of integrated drug discovery services based at the former Organon / Merck Sharpe and Dohme (MSD) R&D site in Newhouse, Scotland. In 2020 and 2021, BioAscent has been listed as the top-performing Pre-clinical Contract Research Organization in the Pharma Fast 50 report from financial services company, Alantra, which ranks the UK’s fastest-growing, privately-owned pharmaceutical businesses according to revenue growth over the previous two years. The Management Team received the Business Leadership Award at Scotland’s Life Sciences Awards in 2021. Our drug discovery services include de novo assay development, target analysis and bespoke screening strategies, compound screening, medicinal and synthetic chemistry, computational chemistry and data management. Our team of expert scientists has experience of successfully working from assay development through to preclinical and clinical candidates across all biological target classes and major therapeutic indications. As part of its compound management service, BioAscent currently holds and manages over 1 million compounds for our customers, in both liquid and solid formats. Through the Compound Cloud service, the company provides rapid access to an IP-free library of ~125,000 lead like compounds in screening-ready format.  Since 2013, the BioAscent team has been responsible for:
>100 biochemical and biophysical assays for drug discovery projects
>50 hit validation/characterisation projects
>30 hit-to-lead campaigns
>80,000 screening plates delivered to our global customers/partners