In-house Diversity and Fragment Libraries

Access our diversity library, fragment library, or custom subsets, for your high-throughput or targeted screen

Introduction

BioAscent has assembled a number of high-quality compound libraries for biochemical, cell-based and phenotypic screens to provide starting points for new drug discovery programmes. Options range from HTS programmes using our in-house diversity library, through focused screens using custom sets, to fragment screens using our in-house fragment set – and virtual screening approaches delivered by our in-silico group, and key external compounds sourced via our aggregation partners. Our chemogenomics library is a powerful tool for phenotypic screening and mechanism of action studies.

BioAscent Diversity Set

The library was originally part of MSD’s screening collection. It was selected by Organon/Schering-Plough/MSD medicinal chemists to be a diverse set and to provide good medicinal chemistry starting points for discovery programmes.

Compounds are stored in DMSO solution (2mM & 10mM) in individual-use REMP tubes, with 86,000 also held as solid stock at BioAscent. The collection is comprised of commercially available compounds from various suppliers, so solid stock is also available commercially (e.g. via our compound supply partners).

Compounds were selected using drug-like properties, e.g:

Lipinski’s Rule of 5 compliance
polar surface area < 120
focus on attractive chemotypes and on compounds found in recent drug discovery projects

With regard to physicochemical properties the compounds are, in general, lead-like with the following median properties:

MWt – 355
cLogP – 2.76
TPSA – 80
HBA – 5
HBD – 1

As an illustration of the diversity, the set contains ca.57k different Murcko Scaffolds and ca. 26.5k Murcko Frameworks.

To request more information on the structures, click here. To receive a full description of the library and its track record, complete the form below.

Pre-plated and custom library subsets

In addition to the full library, three smaller diversity subsets are available for use in screening at BioAscent:

5k subset

To demonstrate the utility of the library, we have selected a subset of 5,000 compounds designed to be structurally representative of the full library, enriched in bioactive chemotypes and with pharmacologically active compounds identified using Bayesian models. This set has been screened against 35 diverse biological targets. These included enzymes, nuclear hormone receptors, GPCRs, protein-protein interactions, protein-RNA interactions, viral interferon antagonists; as well as phenotypic cell growth / cell death assays. High quality hits resulted from these screens.

3k and 12k subsets

Smart, diverse libraries designed as representative subsets of the entire 125k library, balancing structural fingerprint and physicochemical descriptor diversity.

Custom subsets

Using our computational expertise and Compound Management cherry picking capabilities, we can design and pick custom subsets for your target – or you computational experts can select their own. And we can combine compounds from our library with externally sourced compounds (see External custom library selection and sourcing). 

Further options for hit generation and validation are provided by our chemogenomic and fragment libraries.

Chemogenomic library

Our chemogenomic library comprises over 1,600 diverse, highly selective and well-annotated pharmacologically active probe molecule making it a powerful tool for phenotypic screening and mechanism of action studies. Classes of compounds in the library include:

Kinase inhibitors
GPCR ligands (agonists, antagonists, allosteric modulators)
Target-specific epigenetic modifiers
And more, all with extensive pharmacological annotations

Fragment Library

We have designed and assembled a balanced fragment library of over 10,000 compounds, including a number of bespoke compounds designed and synthesised in-house. Combined with our extensive expertise in biophysical fragment-based hit finding strategies (especially SPR-driven approaches), we have the in-house expertise to prioritise and develop mM affinity fragment hits to high affinity lead series.

Finally, we have assembled a collection of compounds to assist in assay optimisation.

PAINS Set

As part of our assay development/validation process we have a set of known problematic compounds that can cause false positive results during screening (e.g. aggregators, redox cyclers, chelators etc.) which we use to identify potential liabilities. We then either optimise the assay to minimise these ‘false positive’ effects, or in cases where we still see them appearing we can put in place appropriate de-selection assays to identify them quickly. For further information, see Biochemical, Biophysical & Cellular Assay Development.

Further Information

To receive a full description of the library and its track record by email, please enter your email address.

Our Experts

Associate Director of In Silico Discovery

Dr Angelo Pugliese

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Integrated Drug Discovery


Science-led drug discovery

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