Cloud Pharmaceuticals Receives Phase I NSF SBIR Grant Valued at $150,000

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., July 29, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Cloud Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a therapeutics company focused on cloud-based drug design and development, announced today that it has been awarded a Phase I grant from the National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research (NSF SBIR) program. The grant is valued at $150,000.

Cloud Pharmaceuticals designs new drugs and drug candidates and accelerates the development process by implementing new, innovative cloud computing technology in place of traditional methods. The company manages the development of multiple drug candidates through an extensive network of partners.

This Phase I NSF SBIR project focuses on advancing the development of the Inverse Design computational drug discovery platform. Inverse Design runs computational models to quickly scan vast molecular space to find the strongest inhibitors of specific biological targets. It uses advanced quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) calculations for binding accuracy combined with an artificial intelligence heuristic search algorithm.

"We intend to apply the grants to add tools to enhance the molecular searching functionality of  our Inverse Design platform," says Dr. Shahar Keinan, chief scientific officer for Cloud Pharmaceuticals. "The first is a multi-object optimization to further enhance the accuracy of our search results. The second is an automated scaffold-design algorithm that enables highly selective inhibitor designs. These tools will further our efforts to identify molecules that not only bind well to a biological target, but also feature good clinical properties and demonstrate low probability of toxic and off-target side effects, as well as greater stability and synthesizability."

Cloud Pharmaceuticals is helping to transform the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries to enable personalized medicine, niche buster drugs, and rapidly developed blockbusters for difficult targets. The company applies proprietary methods and collaborates with a network of virtual partners to fill the need that bio/pharma companies have for rapid development of new active molecules.

About Cloud Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Cloud Pharmaceuticals is a leader in the computational design of new drugs and subsequent rapid, information-driven drug development. We accelerate the drug discovery and design process in a way that delivers tangible results and true value for our partners. For information visit http://www.cloudpharmaceuticals.com/.

SOURCE Cloud Pharmaceuticals, Inc.