Ariana Pharmaceuticals extends deal with the CNRS
Ariana Pharmaceuticals extends collaboration with the Paris-based CNRS
UK company Ariana Pharmaceuticals, a drug discovery company combining artificial intelligence (AI) and experimental methods to predict the behavior of novel molecules, has extended its collaboration with the Paris-based CNRS (Centre National de Recherche Scientifique), France's premier research organisation.
Ariana has negotiated exclusive access in the life sciences field to use the AI technology developed jointly by Ariana and the Laboratoire d'Informatique, de Robotique et de Micro-electronique de Montpellier (LIRMM), the CNRS lab in Montpellier, France.
The collaboration will focus on further developing Ariana's unique AI technology that it believes has the potential to decrease drug discovery timelines significantly by improving the prediction of the quality profile of molecules.
The parallel optimisation of ADMET properties remains a major challenge as approaches to date have been unable to make predictions about molecules that are not related to already known examples (thus ignoring many novel candidates) or to make computer-aided predictions that are easy to interpret and use. Ariana's new technology is designed to overcome these barriers and therefore impact the efficiency of drug discovery.
Starting with validated targets and structural data, Ariana uses a combination of proprietary computational, crystallographic and biochemical methods to expedite early identification and optimisation of quality lead molecules. Its ultra high throughput in silico screening uses AI tools to improve the process of identifying selective small molecule leads. The quality of the molecules is enhanced by including proprietary in silico ADMET at the screening stage as well as in the multi-objective experimental optimisation of molecules activity and quality.
'This collaboration will support our ability to consistently explain reasons for our ADMET predictions and to make predictions for totally novel molecules,' says Ariana's founder and ceo Dr Mohammad Afshar.
'Our technology identifies the optimum balance of properties when it exists or, as importantly, rapidly flags non-druggable targets where small molecule drug therapy may not be achievable.'
