Novel Path to New Drugs

"But even as recently as six months ago we didn’t realize that it would lead to novel ways to discover new molecules for drugs to potentially treat cancer, neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and mad cow, and other diseases."

That science was based on software which can be used to analyze and predict protein structure and was originally used as a bioinformatics tool to "data mine" protein sequences. It was pioneered by Ms. Van’s husband, Dr. A. Keith Dunker, and his collaborators at Washington State University. He is now a professor holding the Endowed Chair for Bioinformatics and Director of the Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics at Indiana University.

The protein sequence analyzing technology, which had been licensed to Molecular Kinetics for commercial development, had tremendous potential for advancing discoveries in new fields of protein science, but the company needed to research and develop actual products to bring to market. A total of four SBIR grants allowed it to do so by adapting the original software to build research tools for purposes such as compiling a cancer database and nonconventional methods for drug discovery.

The SBIR grants, however, are short-term arrangements, and Ms. Van was afraid her company, based in Indianapolis since 2003, would run out of money before proposals for further funding could be written and submitted. "I was thinking that-just as we get going-I’ll have to fire the nine employees I’ve hired here because we won’t have cash to continue. That’s where the 21st Century Research and Technology Fund came in, with grants that matched my SBIR funding and allowed me to keep operating without letting anyone go."

The 21st Century Fund financing also enabled Molecular Kinetics to apply for patent protection for its novel approaches to cancer drug development. Patent protection is essential, as this new method of discovering drug molecules has strong commercial potential and is already attracting attention from around the globe-a good indication that the nine employees at Molecular Kinetics may have new colleagues soon.