Biologically intelligent database searching for lead identification and patent fortification

Welwyn Garden City, UK – 16 January 2013 – Cresset, innovative provider of chemistry software and services, announces the completion of its Cresset proV10 suite with the relaunch of its highly successful FieldScreen system as Blaze for ligand based virtual screening. Blaze uses the shape and electrostatic character of known ligands to rapidly search large chemical collections for molecules with similar properties, returning diverse new leads. This makes it a powerful tool for patent fortification and compound reprofiling.

Blaze is used to find biologically active molecules in a wide range situations across the pharmaceutical, agrochemical and fine chemical industries. Using Blaze for virtual screening before a wet screening run can dramatically increase the hit rate, cutting costs and speeding up the discovery process. Applying Blaze to HTS results finds molecules which falsely failed the biological assay, rescuing them for further investigation. Using Blaze on compounds of known biological activity provides insights into off-target effects. Employing Blaze to search databases of known drugs identifies potential re-profiling opportunities. Cresset consultants use Blaze to advise clients on how to strengthen their patent position by identifying structurally diverse compounds that could be potential fast followers.

Dr Robert Scoffin, CEO of Cresset, says, “The relaunch of one of our leading applications as Blaze completes the rebranding of the Cresset range of software for molecular design and discovery. Blaze, Spark, Torch and Forge are outstanding tools that help chemists design and discover the best new active molecules for life science research.”

Blaze is operated through a simple web based wizard like interface or as a series of command line applications and is available as software for installation, software as a service running on cloud hardware, or through consultancy with Cresset’s project services team.