 Bioinformatics is a discipline of science that analyses, understands and models the whole life as an information processing phenomenon with methods from mathematics and computer science using biological experimental data.
The integration of information technology with biology has impacted the multifold increase in the pace of the research. The amplification of the biological data is no mean a good sign for the researchers unless it is curated. All marketed drugs today target only about 500 gene /products. The elucidation of the human genome which has an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 genes – a big number to be explored.
The realization of its potential has lead us integrate this to unravel some of the unrequired questions which arise during in Vivo and in vitro studies. Some of our latest endeavors include virtual screening of drugs, Target identification, in silico metabolomics, Protein Modeling ,Drug designing –Pharmacophore prediction, 2D&3D QSAR studies.
High Throughput Docking is used to screen large compound libraries against identified /modeled active sites with unmatched throughput, enabling rapid detection of the most promising lead candidates. Inverse docking (docking of single ligand to a library of macromolecules) is an emerging and powerful tool in this sector. This approach basically works on the fact that millions of molecules are already available (synthesized/characterized) and can be screened to explore new target(s) and activities.
Pharmacophore-guided drug design is also being used to develop new analogues of molecules under investigation.
3D QSAR based prediction of ADME/T properties: Earlier, focus on pharmacokinetcs of candidate drug molecule was  analyzed in the latter phase of drug discovery. Now, with failures of many potential molecules in ADME/T, after spending nearly half of the billion dollar affair, the importance of this factor is cannot be neglected. Early prediction of ADME/T properties of developing molecules could give insight into these parameters and may warn against fatal disasters.  In the natural products sector, we employ bioinformatics tools to analyses and explore metabolomics (In silico analysis of plant secondary metabolite pathways) and nutrigenomics. The science of nutrigenomics seeks to provide a molecular understanding for how common dietary chemicals (mainly non-metabolisable components) affect health by altering the expression and/or functioning of an individual’s genetic makeup.
Most of the above studies and interpretations require validation in an experimental setup. And that is the strong point of VMSRF, where, under the same roof, expertise and facilities are operational in the fields of Synthetic chemistry, Natural products, Plant biotechnology and molecular biology, Drosophila genetics and Pharmacology. This cross platform research and free bidirectional interactions amplifies the scope of each discipline and collective output, as a whole. |
