Medical researchers are in a desperate race to identify, develop and test treatments and cures in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic. While design and manufacturing communities play a critical role in combating the pandemic across globe, it is observed that there is limited focus on leveraging collective intelligence of research communities in this area. A little coordination among research community can play a critical role to guide the response to such pandemic and accelerate medical research.
As an active supporter of the scientific community that is collaborating today on COVID-19 solutions, Dassault Systèmes has been extending a no-charge six-month license of BIOVIA Discovery Studio (a world class life sciences research and modeling platform for in-silico simulation techniques). This initiative is extended to academic research groups involved in SARS-CoV-2 related studies to assist them in the search for rapid, safe and effective therapeutic drug candidates against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This offer will run through June 30, 2020.Accutane is a very strong medicine that can cause many side effects. You can find out more information at https://smokeypointskin.com/accutane-online/. The most common of them is dry skin. This can lead to irritation and severe rash, typical for eczema.
BIOVIA Discovery Studio provides researchers with a complete toolset for use from target identification through to lead optimization, including tools for biologics design and analysis, classical simulations, structure and fragment-based design, virtual ligand screening, as well as ADME and toxicity prediction. Pertaining to BIOVIA Discovery Studio’s usefulness in COVID-19 research, capabilities include protein structure determination with homology modeling, virtual screening/drug repurposing and pharmacophore modeling for lead identification.
Following the surge in demand, Altem Technologies, a platinum partner for Dassault Systèmes is extending the services to various academic research institutes across India in field of Medicine, Bioinformatics, Cheminformatics, Biotechnology, Chemistry, Genetic Engineering, Virology, Nanotechnology, Cancer Biology, Pharmacology, Computational Biology, Biophysics, Computer-Aided Drug Design (CADD), Medicinal Chemistry, Proteomics, Pharmacology etc.
“In the current pandemic event of COVID-19, where the world is facing the challenge of lockdown, virulence prevention by social distancing and sanitization measures as well as finding appropriate therapy for cure from SARS-COV2 has become utmost necessity. Researchers and scientists like us are striving hard to find appropriate solutions, but it was explicitly becoming difficult for me to go to office or lab and was feeling helpless. This is where I got strong support from Dassault systems’ BIOVIA Discovery Studio” says Dr. Virupaksha A. Bastikar, Assistant Professor, (Molecular Modeling, Drug Design & Discovery) Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Mumbai. He further stated that “We have already scanned through approximately 5000 drug and drug like analogues as well as various possible drug targets established by doing proteome analysis using drug repurposing techniques which I am working on for initiating solutions for SAR-COV2. The process is still on. I extend my gratitude to Altem & BIOVIA team for providing prompt support and services whenever required”
Interestingly it is notable that in wake of COVID-19 research, the number of requests Altem Technologies has received in last 45 days has already surpassed the total number of evaluations extended last year. This surge also emphasizes the urgency for quality research, testing strategies & SoP demands from various regulatory and governing bodies in India like Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Department of Bio Technology (DBT), Department of Science and Technology (DST), Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) etc.
The complete journey of working with BIOVIA Discovery Studio Modules for my project related to SARS-CoV-2 drug repurposing was admirable and giving fast & suitable outcomes. Impressed with the dedication of the technical support provided by Altem & BIOVIA team. I appreciate their work” says Dr. Jimmy Christy, Assistant Professor, Department of Bioinformatics, Sathyabama University, Chennai
Dr. Manali Joshi, Assistant Professor, Bioinformatics Centre, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune mentioned “I really appreciate the free Discovery Studio license provided by Altem & BIOVIA team for enabling research and teaching activities during the current lockdown period. This has allowed a seamless transition to workfromhome and to contribute to research on COVID19”
Academic researchers can request a six-month license and software download of BIOVIA Discovery Studio for their SARS-CoV-2 research by clicking here. Applications are being accepted through June 30, 2020. In addition to this, those who may be interested to look at curating their ideas from research to production can register themselves at The Open COVID-19 Community. It is a global initiative from Dassault Systèmes which already includes members from the USA, UK, India, France and the Netherlands.
A deeper understanding of why and how a therapy responds/reacts against COVID-19 is the need of the hour for scientists today globally. Relying on tradition approach of physical experimentation will demand more time and may not be economically sustainable in emergency situations like COVID-19 Pandemic. Though microscopic observations can help to arrive at these models, certain missing elements cannot be observed even at nano or femto scale levels.
Many researchers thus are adding a new weapon to their arsenal: virtual computer modeling programs (in-silico simulation) that can evaluate thousands of potential treatments in hours, pinpointing the most likely candidates for further research and identify therapeutics that can disrupt viral protein targets.
Patient-centered technologies will be the new foundation of life sciences. Providing a conducive platform enables academic research bodies to follow COVID-19 symptoms for their ongoing and future clinical trials, and advance scientific understanding of the virus. The objective is to consolidate a worldwide list of projects and connect them to people looking for solutions, a single repository to find good design.
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Publication Date : May, 2020
