SBIR Phase II: Cheminformatics Teaching Tools for the Cheminformatics Virtual Classroom

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project addresses the development of virtual classroom software tools for cheminformatics training in academia and industry. Mesa Analytics & Computing, LLC provides a commercial, integrated suite of the leading-edge cheminformatics software tools for the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. However, these tools, incorporating the most recent research in cheminformatics by Mesa, and integrated with other leading cheminformatics vendors` software (OpenEye, eduSoft, ChemAxon, and AccuSoft), are for use in large-scale research and industrial applications, where the users already have experience in cheminformatics software, most often obtained through on-the-job training. The research goals of this project are to develop an easy to use, comprehensive, and competitively priced cheminformatics virtual classroom. This project will further the advanced research and development of software tools for interactive distance learning in cheminformatics topics, such as finding compound substructure commonalities, generation and use of structural and property compound descriptors, similarity searching, cluster analysis, compound library design, 3D drug design, compound databases, and Quantitative Structure Activity Relationship (QSAR). The project will produce a beta version of the cheminformatics virtual classroom ready for testing and marketing to the academic and industry markets. There are a growing number of university departments worldwide offering courses and degrees in cheminformatics, across a range of life science disciplines. However, there is no comprehensive cheminformatics virtual classroom product. Software products used in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry are expensive, difficult to install, and of limited utility for introductory training. Converting Mesa`s tools and other vendors` software into a coherent set of Web-based training tools for concept learning, with the help of six diverse academic testing sites, will provide the necessary training tools for academia and industry. Web delivered training software is a cost effective means to provide distance learning for rural and urban academic institutions and industry sites here and abroad. The virtual classroom will help to lower the cost of on-the-job training for early phase drug discovery research efforts found in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. The long term goal is to increase the quality and quantity of new researchers, with the potential benefit of increasing the number of drug leads, thereby improving the chances of finding more effective drugs for a wider range of serious diseases, and possibly lowering the cost to consumers.