Optibrium and Imperial College Collaborate for Drug Development for Neglected Diseases as part of project with DNDi

Optibrium has entered into a collaboration with Imperial College London for developing new treatments for neglected diseases as part of a collaborative project with DNDi (Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative). Optibrium’s StarDrop software will be available to students at Imperial College studying MSci and MRes programmes in Medicinal Chemistry, to design new candidate compounds for Visceral Leishmaniasis.

Optibrium will also provide teaching on the application of software for drug discovery to these students. The collaboration is part of DNDi’s Open Synthesis Network, a global health programme focused on neglected diseases, and also supports a wider initiative to provide students the most relevant courses for a career in the pharmaceutical industry.

Neglected diseases continue to cause significant morbidity and mortality in the developing world; over one billion people are affected by diseases such as leishmaniasis, sleeping sickness, Chagas disease, malaria, tuberculosis and paediatric HIV, for which adequate treatments are not available.

Optibrium CEO, Dr Matthew Segall said that StarDrop is leading edge software that is used across the pharma industry to improve the speed, efficiency, and productivity of the drug discovery process. They are delighted to be working with DNDi on neglected diseases and through Imperial College, supporting students to gain experience of industry standard tools and software ‘know-how’. This will ensure that they understand best practices in data analysis and new compound design for when they enter either commercial or academic research.