By Rachelle H.B. Fishman
BioWorld International Correspondent
HERZLIA, Israel - A new Israeli biotechnology company, Bio-IT Ltd., has developed a information-based computational tool designed to dramatically shorten the drug discovery process.
Bio-IT's proteomics technology predicts the 3-dimensional structure of proteins as the basis to design effective drugs for the treatment of major diseases, said Oren Becker, assistant professor of computational chemistry and chemical physics at Tel Aviv University's School of Chemistry.
Becker, who is currently teaching computer simulations of macromolecules at Harvard University, invented this technology at Tel Aviv University and partnered with veteran molecular biologist Silvia Noiman and Haim Aviv, a leading biotech entrepreneur, to found Bio-IT.
"Bio-IT's technology bridges the gap between the linear chemical sequences provided by the information libraries of the Human Genome Project and the design of disease-fighting molecules. To design effective drugs, the enfolded molecule target in question must attain a very specific 3-dimensional structure," Noiman, the former coordinator of the Israel National Biotechnology Committee, told BioWorld International.
The Human Genome Project will provide the linear DNA sequence for every human gene, including those that might be harnessed to control disease. However, this information only describes the linear chemical sequences; in order to apply it to efficient computational drug design, scientists must be able to picture the 3-dimensional shape of drug target proteins. Until now, this deciphering has remained a challenge, as there are millions of possible formations for each protein.
Bio-IT is based on combining biology and sophisticated computational technologies, a strength in Israel.
"The technology has the potential to revolutionize the drug discovery process and make it more efficient," Aviv said. "Predicting 3-dimensional structures of proteins is the Holy Grail of biotechnology."
Competitors in the U.S. are working on different molecules, but Bio-IT's founders are betting on the family of G-coupled-protein receptors (GPCRs), which are important for drug discovery because they are involved in a wide variety of human diseases. About 30 percent of drugs in current use interact with GPCRs.
"We applied the informational modeling to the DNA sequence of the GPCRs and demonstrated that Bio-IT's novel technology can generate and successfully reproduce accurate structures for the GPCR family," Noiman said.
Bio-IT is concentrating its formidable proprietary technologies to design and discover small-molecule drugs for GPCR-related ailments such as cardiovascular diseases, depression, obesity, pain, cancer and viral infections.