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Hit to Lead Services
Hit to lead services are a core component of the drug discovery pipeline, bridging the gap between identifying initial ‘hits’, and optimizing them into more potent and selective lead compounds. This process is essential for ensuring the safety, efficacy, and pharmacokinetic properties of molecules. Facilitating this transformation, our specialized hit to lead services will assist in the identification and optimization of lead compounds, advancing your timeline of drug discovery.
Our Integrated Approach to Hit to Lead Services
We have a unique approach to providing hit to lead solutions, we have cultivated a collaborative environment that leverages diverse scientific disciplines, including computational chemistry and molecular biology. By harnessing this expertise, we are able to accelerate the optimization process and increase the chances of success.
Hit to Lead Optimization
The goal of hit to lead optimization is to identify lead candidates with therapeutic potential, this ensures improved potency, selectivity, pharmacokinetic attributes, and reduced toxicity. It is an iterative process that accelerates drug development, transforming hits into viable leads, and advances them to preclinical evaluation and clinical trials if successful. This discovery process of initial hit compounds, and refinement into selective lead compounds, is facilitated by our extensive hit to lead capabilities, which include the following:
Variations of the Nash Mouse Model
ADME Profiling
Hit to lead services rely on ADME profiling, which assesses the interaction of compounds within the body, and covers absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion. It has an essential role in drug development, as the process informs lead compound selection and optimization by providing mechanistic insights.
Our specialized structural biology services aid in determining the three-dimensional structures of biomolecules during the hit-to-lead process. This helps identify the molecular-level interactions between potential leads and target proteins. By guiding drug design, this process propels compounds from their initial discovery to potential realization.
Offering unique perspectives to analyze the interactions between lead compounds and their biological targets, biophysical assays are utilized in our hit to lead services to determine the details of binding, stability and structural changes, to aid in lead compound optimization.
The Hit-to-Lead Process
Every phase in the hit-to-lead process contributes to the final selection of promising candidates, we provide strategic hit to lead support that guides this process from start to finish, opening avenues for development of innovative treatments.
- Hit Identification: High-throughput screening is initial used to identify hits, these hits can include molecules with known biological activity, or novel compounds that exhibit potential.
- Hit Confirmation: After identification hits go through further testing which aims to confirm their activity, and assess their potential for optimization.
- Lead Generation: Potentially successful hits are modified to improve their potency, selectivity, and other pharmacological properties through structural changes.
- Biological Evaluation: Modified compounds are extensively tested through both in vitro and in vivo techniques, which are conducted as part of our hit to lead services, in order to evaluate their activity, toxicity, and other relevant characteristics.
- Refinement: During multiple rounds of optimization, the lead compounds refine their chemical structures in order to enhance desired properties, thus eliminating undesirable traits.
- Candidate Selection: Lead candidates with the best overall profile are selected for preclinical development, and will eventually be selected for clinical trials after successful optimization iterations.
Tailored Hit to Lead Services
Our hit to lead support will be tailored to your particular needs and requirements, we understand that each drug discovery project is distinct, which requires a flexible approach, and personalized solutions. Our interdisciplinary team brings expertise in a wide range of fields, and will always be engaged on a program level, collaborating with you throughout the entire process, which will allow you to fine tune your research so you can meet your end goals.