Numerate was recently awarded U.S. Patent 7,856,321 B2, covering the development of models based on phenotypic data. Specifically, it captures the idea that predictions of binding may provide a suitable representation for developing models of phenotypic effects thought to relate to binding events, but where the particular binding interactions underlying the effect may be unknown. We have validated this approach in the laboratory and used it to identify novel anti-bacterial compounds. The results of this work will be presented at the upcoming American Chemical Society meeting in Anaheim.
Amazon and Numerate write case study on cloud computing
Our business is truly enabled by our use of the cloud, in particular Amazon Web Services (AWS) so we are delighted for them to release a study (http://aws.amazon.com/solutions/case-studies/numerate/) on our use case. We perform all of our significant compute on Amazon Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2) which provides us with access to the 1 million CPU hours each of our collaborations requires. With EC2 we only pay for what we use and more importantly we can bring on more capacity when and if we need it. Amazon has demonstrated remarkable foresight with this service and continues to release new capabilities. We are particularly excited about Amazon’s new Cluster Compute Nodes, and the evolution of their Virtual Private Cloud. Our use of the cloud, in particular how we handle security, is described in more detail on our technology blog (http://www.numerati.com).
Congresswoman Jackie Speier joins Numerate for contract announcement
We were pleased to welcome Congresswoman Jackie Speier to Numerate today, who joined us in announcing our three-year DTRA contract for speeding the design of biowarfare countermeasures. Also speaking at the press conference were Jeremy Leffler, Bay Bio Chief Operating Officer, along with our CEO Guido Lanza and our CTO, Nigel Duffy. The event, which highlighted Numerate’s achievements and potential contributions to both the biodefense and healthcare industries, was covered by members of the local TV and print media.
Four recent press articles
We’re excited about our recent press coverage, which reflects our increasing momentum and progress in developing our technology as well as advancing our partnering business. In fact, there are four recent articles that we wanted to bring to your attention:
The first, from the San Francisco Business Times, paints a high-level picture of the parallels between our approach to ranking molecules and strategies such as Google’s PageRank. We are particularly excited that the article highlighted what we believe to be our most compelling competitive advantage — our ability to deliver white powder in vials that performs as predicted in the lab.
This article from FierceBiotech IT, expands on the Business Times piece and discusses the patent we were granted covering our novel application of machine-learning technology to challenges in drug discovery.
http://www.fiercebiotechit.com/story/report-google-code-tackles-drug-development/2010-08-20
We were pleased that BioCentury chose to feature Numerate in an “Emerging Company Profile,” which provides an in-depth look at our technology and describes the progress we’ve made since founding the company in 2007.
Finally, BioWorld ran an item announcing the successful completion of our collaboration with Intellikine, noting that we were able to deliver backups for Intellikine’s already impressive lead series for PI3K–alpha inhibitors.
We will keep you apprised of similar articles in the future as we continue to grow our business, build our technology, and meet significant milestones, both for us and for our partners.
Numerate and Intellikine Conclude Research Collaboration to Discover Selective Inhibitors Against PI3 Kinase Alpha
Here’s some news about our work for a partner who asked us to develop a new series of PI3K small molecule inhibitors for the treatment of solid tumors as a backup to its lead series. We were fortunate to have had the opportunity to collaborate with Intellikine and prove our drug design technology in a very crowded intellectual property space.
Numerate and Intellikine Conclude Research Collaboration to Discover Selective Inhibitors Against PI3 Kinase Alpha
San Bruno and La Jolla, California – August 11, 2010 – Numerate, Inc. and Intellikine, Inc. today announced the successful conclusion of their research collaboration to discover novel small molecule compounds targeting the PI3K/mTOR signaling pathway. The collaboration combined Intellikine’s unique capabilities in x-ray crystal structure-guided medicinal chemistry and drug discovery with Numerate’s powerful computational drug design platform to identify potent, selective and drug-like inhibitors of PI3 kinase alpha, an important target in cancer therapy.
“Numerate has demonstrated that its data-driven drug design technology can deliver high quality, novel chemical scaffolds rapidly and cost-effectively,” said Troy Wilson, President and Chief Executive Officer of Intellikine. “These impressive results significantly expand our chemical diversity and further strengthen our proprietary position in an exciting area of anti-cancer research.”
“It was a privilege to work with Intellikine, which is moving rapidly ahead against a very promising target in cancer,” stated Guido Lanza, President and Chief Executive Officer of Numerate. “Our collaboration illustrates the power of our technology platform to add value to a company’s pipeline and intellectual property position.”
To discover the novel lead compounds, Numerate scientists ran their platform on Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), allowing them to search through hundreds of millions of compounds to identify those with the highest probability of activity against PI3K. Those compounds were then synthesized and their inhibitory activity and other properties verified in the laboratory.
