Case Studies

cost-effective hit-finding projects

Cresset works with clients to find new hits for their discovery projects using our field-based software. Projects take on average two to four weeks and we do not ask for IP. Cresset's FieldScreen™ virtual screening software has been used by us in over 30 hit-finding projects against a wide variety of targets and has a current success rate of finding good novel hit compounds of ~80%. Some of the projects we have worked on include:

Client	Target Class	Outcome	Notes
Large Pharma	Chemokine receptor	Success	3 diverse series progressed
Large Pharma	Enzyme	Success	Comparison with in-house and competitor methods
Biotech	GPCR	Success	30% hit rate
Large Pharma	Protease	Fail	Looking for less basic mimics of highly basic compounds
Biotech	Metalloprotease	Fail	No novel metal chelators in database
Biotech	Kinase	Success	>25% hit rate, <60 compounds screened
Biotech	Ion channel	Success	30% hit rate, ~300 compounds screened
Biotech	Ion channel	Success	10% hit rate
Biotech	Unknown	Success	Good hit rate
James Black Foundation	CCK2	Success	30% hit rate
Biotech	GPCR	Success	>25% hit rate
Biotech	Protease	Fail	Primary amine required for activity
Biotech	GPCR	Success	Undisclosed hit rate
Biotech	CNS target	Success	Undisclosed hit rate
Wellcome Trust and Edinburgh University	11β-HSD1	Success	10% hit rate, 3 new series found
Biotech	Undisclosed	Success	Undisclosed hit rate

Some representative case studies are:

CCK2: a popular peptide-ligand GPCR target: Cresset determined the bound conformation using FieldTemplater™, selected compounds for testing and found multiple lead series after screening only 88 compound
11beta HSD1: a steroid receptor: Virtual screening using the fields of the natural ligand produced 23 hits in 4 series from screening 408 compounds
A peptide-ligand GPCR with no known small molecule inhibitors: Cresset started with the 30-amino-acid natural ligand, created a template from a key 4 residue segment and found 12 hits out of 41 purchased compounds

We also provide support for hit-to-lead and lead optimization projects.