LEEDS, England, April 24, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

Lhasa Limited, a leading global supplier of knowledge based software and associated databases, today announces that the latest version of its Nexus software platform will be released to its members on April 30^th 2014.  With the opportunity to have the toxicology prediction packages, Derek and Sarah, with the metabolism prediction package, Meteor, and linking to the toxicology database, Vitic, the Nexus software platform provides experts with one, easy to use interface.

In addition to a scientific update of the knowledge behind both Derek Nexus™ and Meteor Nexus™, this release will add key functionality to Derek Nexus enabling negative predictions to be made.  With support from its members, Lhasa Limited has developed a scientifically robust and transparent methodology to make an explicit prediction of inactivity for the mutagenicity in vitro endpoint.  This functionality was designed to meet member requirements by supporting expert review of in-house data.

Experienced Derek Nexus users will know that currently if no alerts for mutagenicity in vitro fire within Derek Nexus, then a 'nothing to report' prediction is delivered.  In this latest release, 'inactive' will be shown and, when appropriate, structural features highlighted providing recommendations for additional expert review.  Derek Nexus together with the highly transparent statistical approach taken by Sarah Nexus™ provides the two complimentary prediction methodologies required by ICH M7 within a single interface.

Dr. Richard Williams from Lhasa Limited will be describing the negative prediction functionality in a webinar entitled "An update on negative predictions in Derek Nexus" on the 14^th of May 2014 at 16:00 (BST).  The presentation will cover the science behind this approach, performance against a range of proprietary datasets and illustrate how an expert can use this information to perform an expert review.  To register for this event please go to www3.gotomeeting.com/register/805195198

About Lhasa Limited 

Lhasa Limited is a not-for-profit organisation that facilitates collaborative data sharing projects in the pharmaceutical, cosmetics and chemistry-related industries.  A pioneer in the production of knowledge-based systems for forward thinking scientists, Lhasa limited continues to draw on over thirty years of experience to create user-friendly, state of the art in silico prediction and database systems.

We believe in 'Shared Knowledge, Shared Progress'.  Our not-for-profit, member driven status is designed to facilitate collaborative working and confidential data sharing between organisations.  We run collaborative projects with industry, academia and regulatory bodies to continually enhance all our products.

Lhasa's products include the Derek Nexus™ expert system for predicting toxicity, Sarah Nexus™, a transparent statistical system for predicting mutagenicity, Vitic Nexus™ for managing chemical data and information, Meteor Nexus™ for predicting metabolic fate and Zeneth™ for predicting forced degradation pathways.

For further information on the Nexus platform please contact info@lhasalimited.org or call +44-113-394-6020.

SOURCE Lhasa Limited