Sharon Bryant - 30 de abril de 2013

HORARIO: Martes 30 de abril de 2013, a las 12,30

LUGAR: Salón de Grados de la Facultad de Química (Campus de Espinardo, Universidad de Murcia)

TÍTULO: "Farmacóforos avanzados y LigandScout: Herramientas Eficientes para el Cribado Virtual de alta precisión y la identificación de compuestos con potencial farmacológico"

ABSTRACT: Virtual screening methods are well established in the modern drug discovery process since they significantly impact the efficient discovery of novel bioactive compounds. In addition, the concept of 3D-chemical feature-based pharmacophore models has been established as a state-of-the-art technique for representing the key interactions between small molecules and proteins. These models can be used to rapidly and accurately screen compound libraries and support lead optimization efforts. LigandScout, a pharmacophore modeling and virtual screening platform, has been developed at Inte:Ligand GmbH to rapidly and efficiently interpret protein-ligand interactions and subsequently transform this information into 3D-chemical feature based pharmacophore models that can be used for virtual screening of large multi-conformational compound libraries. In addition, these models are essential for transparently understanding structure-activity relationships by deriving key features for lead optimization of compounds. Furthermore, ligand-based pharmacophore models can be derived based on a set of bioactive molecules when target information is not available.

PONENTE:Sharon Bryant is currently CEO at Inte:Ligand GmbH, a company that assists scientists and management in the pharmaceutical, nutrition, cosmetic and life science industries to identify new bio-active molecules through scientific software development and research consultancy. Previously a Research Scientist at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for 17 years, Sharon's primary research involved molecular modeling of novel opioid peptide derivatives, opioid Gprotein coupled receptors, and development of pharmacophores to identify structural templates for novel lead compounds for investigative research and therapeutic drugs. She has authored and co-authored more than 100 peer reviewed research articles, reference volumes, software reviews and conference proceedings. She is an active member of numerous international professional societies, committees, and serves as a peer reviewer for several American Chemical Society (ACS) journals. Throughout her career she has been an invited lecturer at conferences and universities around the world as well as a recipient of numerous NIH awards and fellowships from the University of San Francisco, CA, University of Siena, Italy and the Japan Society for Promotion of Science (JSPS). As a lover of the performance arts since childhood, Sharon founded, choreographed for and performed professionally with Cai Flamenco Spanish Dance company in Durham, North Carolina for 10 years and continues to teach and perform independently in the US, France and Austria. She holds a degree in Chemistry from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA.

About Inte:Ligand GmbH: InteLigand assists scientists and management in the pharmaceutical, nutrition, cosmetic and life science industries to identify new bio-active molecules by developing and delivering innovative scientific software and expert consulting services. With 20 years of experience in pharmacophore technology, our goal is to facilitate the process of prioritizing compounds for further experimental assessment and to increase understanding of SAR for lead optimization. We offer products for building fragment based virtual chemical libraries, knowledge-based tools for activity profiling and LigandScout, a fully integrated pharmacophore modeling and virtual screening platform.