As the goal of BINDS (Basis for supporting Innovative Drug discovery and life Science research) project is to establish an innovative platform for drug discovery in academia based on the basic life science studies, we actively struggle with drug discovery for the viral infection of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19.
The In-silico Unit in BINDS has worked to search active drugs for SARS-CoV-2 since February 2020. At first, they made in-silico screening using homology modeling of target viral proteins and docking simulations towards them, in order to find out active chemical compounds, which inhibit infection and proliferation of the viral proteins, from many different already-approved drugs. It is called as in-silico drug repositioning. Among the hit compounds found by the above in-silico screening, many are in the library of another BINDS unit, the Chemical Seeds and Lead Compounds Exploratory Unit, and they have been passed on to National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID) in Japan for assessment of anti-SARS-CoV-2 activities. We are collecting and inspecting many other putative drug candidates, and will expand our library of the approved drugs.
We also plan to find out other novel positive compounds rather than the approved drugs. In addition, all the other units in BINDS actively support and assist the anti-COVID-19 projects promoted by the researchers, who submit their proposals to BINDS members. For example:
If you have any request to support your research relating to COVID-19, please do not hesitate to apply for consulting to the BINDS support office:
https://www.binds.jp/en/contact
Not only researches from the academia, but also those from industries are able to be supported. Please visit the BINDS page, showing the flow of the research support:
https://www.binds.jp/en/menu