We are contributing to discovery of new drugs to combat COVID-19

• The COVID-19 main protease, a protein anticipated to be vital to the replication of the virus, has been cloned and crystallised by researchers at Diamond Light Source who have then screened their compound libraries for compounds that could be developed into inhibitors of the protease (https://www.diamond.ac.uk/covid-19/for-scientists/Main-protease-structure-and-XChem.html).
• The Newcastle Drug Discovery Group (Endicott, Noble and Waring) have been collaborating with Diamond to develop new approaches to fragment-based drug discovery – a shared interest of both groups.  Diamond were provided with new compound libraries synthesised in Newcastle’s chemistry laboratories.
• The screen at Diamond has revealed several promising hits, including Newcastle compounds synthesised by PhD student Gemma Davison that reveal an unusual covalent mechanism of action, which reveals a potential route to a therapeutic.

The group is currently following up these preliminary but exciting findings

Last modified: Mon, 27 Apr 2020 14:05:19 BST