NEW YORK, March 8 – ArQule has subscribed to Structural Bioinformatics’ protein structure database, the companies said Thursday.
The database, known as ProMax, contains multiple families of computationally-derived three-dimensional protein structures. ArQule, in Woburn, Mass., will use the structural information to help identify potential drug targets.
“Among the many uses of the ProMax protein structure database is the integration of SBI's proprietary protein structural content with combinatorial chemical libraries to rapidly and accurately structurally discriminate specific targets of interest from unintended targets,” said Joe Fanelli, vice president for marketing and sales at SBI, in a statement. “Using this approach, the specificity of drug libraries for specific targets can be substantially enhanced.”
SBI, based in San Diego, is a privately-held company specializing in generating protein structure information, both in silico and in the laboratory. In January, SBI agreed to provide x-ray crystallography data on drug targets for The RW Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson.