computer aided drug design

(University of Michigan) The University of Michigan received $5 million from the National Institutes of Health to develop the world's leading resource of high-quality experimental data sets of drug-making compounds that will ultimately take computer-aided drug design to a new level.

(NIH/National Institute of General Medical Sciences) Advances in information technology have shaped not only how we find or share information, but also how we make new medicines.

A project just funded by NIH plans to take computer-aided drug design to the next level. The University of Michigan will lead the effort to expand and enhance the molecular data needed to develop computer programs that more accurately predict potential drug candidates.

Researchers in Germany report an advance toward the much awaited era in which scientists will discover and design drugs for cancer, arthritis, AIDS and other diseases almost entirely on the computer, instead of relying on the trial-and-error methods of the past.

The new method involves using computers to analyze the chemical structures of potential drugs and pinpoint the most promising candidates.