FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 12, 2018
Ken Malone
SilcsBio, LLC
410.929.2305
Ken.Malone@silcsbio.com
SilcsBio, LLC Announces Issuance of US Patent with Utility in Drug Design Software
July 12, 2018
Baltimore, Maryland: SilcsBio, LLC (SilcsBio) announced today the issuance of a US patent covering key elements of SilcsBio’s drug design software.
The SilcsBio software is broadly used by pharmaceutical companies for scaffold hopping (a method for finding unique and patentable compounds for drug development) and for easy identification of cryptic pockets (drug binding sites that are difficult to detect by traditional methods).
Specifically, US Patent 10,002,228 covers the algorithms invented by Dr. Alex MacKerell at the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) and Dr. Olgun Guvench at the University of New England, College of Pharmacy that are used for site-identification by ligand competitive saturation (SILCS). SILCS uses mixed-solvent molecular dynamics simulations to identify preferences for ligand binding across the surface of biomolecular targets such as proteins. The results of the algorithms integrated into the SilcsBio software enable medicinal chemists to readily see new possibilities by providing them with color coded maps of the protein’s surface.
“We’ve had great market acceptance of our software that was built on an exclusive license from the University of Maryland, Baltimore. UMB has been a core partner as we’ve grown our business and we’re pleased to see the US Patent & Trademark Office acknowledge the great work done at UMB by Dr. MacKerell and his team” said Ken Malone, Chief Executive Officer of SilcsBio.
About SilcsBio, LLC: SilcsBio sells software used in drug design and provides consulting services for the development of novel drug structures. The company is headquartered at Spark-Baltimore located at 8 Market Place, Suite 300, Baltimore, MD 21202.
