deCODE is employing its expertise in structural biology and medicinal chemistry to discover and develop new drugs to treat major indications. The company has integrated capabilities ranging from targeted in vitro and model organism biology through structure-based drug design, medicinal chemistry and cGMP manufacturing for clinical trials.
Our biology group, based in Reykjavik, conducts functional work to draw out the biological pathways of disease and identifying optimal points for therapeutic intervention. Through the design of biological assays and screening of compound libraries we are able to identify compounds that effectively block or stimulate target proteins.
Our structural biology group on Bainbridge Island, near Seattle, is an industry leader in protein expression and three-dimensional structure determination, based on its expertise ranging from crystallography to large-scale protein production. The analysis of three-dimensional images of target proteins and how they bind to therapeutic compounds provides our drug discovery teams new insight into the nature of compounds that may be able to deliver maximum therapeutic effect. Our structural biology group can clone and express virtually any gene of interest to produce proteins with tailored properties, and has developed innovative software and equipment for automating and streamlining the generation of protein crystals for structure determination using X-ray imaging.
deCODE's chemistry group based outside Chicago conducts lead discovery, medicinal chemistry and development of viable synthetic routes required to manufacture cGMP materials in quantities sufficient for pre-clinical and clinical studies. The group employs advanced tools for in vitro ADME profiling, physicochemical property optimization and pre-formulation.
A recent example of the power of deCODE’s approach to drug discovery is DG071, a novel phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4) modulator for which the company has filed in IND preparatory to entering clinical testing in Alzheimer’s disease and other cognitive disorders. DG071 is being developed as a new and potentially safer means of targeting PDE4 to combat memory loss and cognitive deficits associated with disorders in which neural signaling is reduced or impaired. In animal models, DG071 has been shown to significantly improve learning and long- and short-term memory at doses that offer a wide margin for safety and tolerability. DG071 was discovered through structural biology work that identified PDE4 binding sites that are not comepetitive with cAMP, a crucial molecule for neuronal signaling. As a result, the compound has the potential to eliminate the nausea that limits the utility of previous PDE4 inhibitors. deCODE’s PDE4 modulator platform also has the potential for advancing novel compounds for autoimmune and other disease areas.
