Preamble

Drug Discovery Research Center


Every disease starts at the molecular level. Thus, ultimately ever cure has to be achieved at the molecular level. This recognition leads us inevitably to the direction of Molecular Medicine.

Membrane HS receptor A great deal of progress is expected to occur after the completion of the Human Genome Project. However, even if all the possible information is extracted from the genes, it does not give us the 3D structure of proteins. Thus, we still have no information as to the folding to a functional form, of enzymes and receptors, among many other biologically important molecular arrays. Beyond such basic information, one would also need to know how drug molecules are complexed with these enzymes and receptors.


Finally, some additional mechanistic information related to pre- or post-complexation metabolic reactions, may also be needed. Even though some experimental techniques (X-Ray, NMR, etc.) are available, in the future more and more computations will be used to generate increasingly more accurate results, for a decreasing expense. This will eventually open up a new avenue: Computational Molecular Medicine.

We are eager to integrate our results with biochemical and molecular-biological data, either collected in our laboratory or available through collaboration with specialists in the field. There are always biological structures undergoing computational studies in the laboratory.