Over 100 years ago Emil Fischer, later a winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, proposed an explanation for the observed specificity of an enzyme toward its respective substrate: according to his rationale, the substrate should fit the enzyme like a key fits its lock. With the advent of computers this simple observation provided the foundation for the most rational approach among drug discovery methods: the structure-based discovery. Our discovery technology relies on an intelligent algorithm which analyzes the structure of the given receptor, and designs a compatible, synthetically available molecule, which is able to bind and modulate the function of the target. Such chemical entities may be subsequently developed into drugs.
Image: structure of Neomycin B/RNA complex, based on PDB 1L4C entry.