Structure-Based Drug Design

Revolutionized by biotechnology companies in the late 1980s, structure-based drug design has become an integral part of modern drug discovery. By enabling researchers to view and analyze three-dimensional structures of a potential therapeutic target, structure-based drug design has proven effective in nearly all aspects of drug discovery and development.

While the structure of a target is critical for its biological function, the structure also determines the chemical nature of compounds that can bind to and modulate the function of the target. Structure-based drug design offers medicinal chemists and biologists the opportunity to work together to see how particular compounds interact with their intended target. This provides valuable guidance in the search for potential drug candidates that bind with high specificity and thus have a greater effect on the function of the target.

Structure-based drug design can also be used later in the drug development process to provide intelligence that can be used to optimize the drug's binding affinity while enhancing efficacy parameters, helping to eliminate unwanted properties and further contributing to a smarter, more efficient drug discovery and development of new product candidates.

At Anadys, we are proud to be one of a select group of companies armed with expertise in structure-based drug design coupled with medicinal chemistry. We have established technologies and capabilities to crystallize both protein and RNA targets and solve three-dimensional structures of lead-target complexes.