Lhasa Limited Celebrates 30th Anniversary

LEEDS, England, November 13, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Leeds based not-for-profit and educational charity Lhasa Limited reaches 30 year milestone.

Lhasa Limited, a leading global supplier of knowledge based software and associated databases, was incorporated as a charity in 1983 to assist in the collaborative development of novel synthetic pathways via an in silico tool that utilised computer aided reasoning. At that time the charity involved just a hand full of scientists, now 30 years on, in support of its charitable aims it is a thriving research organisation with a world class software portfolio and a brand synonymous with in silico prediction technology.

From the outset Lhasa Limited has been directed by its members, that is, those organisations using and sponsoring its software and working with Lhasa Limited to develop new applications. This continues to be true today.

The founder members of Lhasa Limited were interested in LHASA (Logic and Heuristics Applied to Synthetic Analysis), a computer system originating from and further developed in conjunction with Harvard University, to assist chemists in the design of complex, organic molecule synthetic pathways. The aim of the founding members was to fund and support the development and refinement of the transformations (generalised retrosynthetic reactions) in the LHASA knowledge base. Applying the same technology to the prediction of toxicity created huge interest within the member community and gave birth to the 'Electric Derek' software. The current membership of Lhasa Limited supports the development and refinement of a range of knowledge based prediction systems including Derek Nexus, Meteor Nexus and Zeneth to (Q)SAR based mutagenicity predictions such as Sarah Nexus.

Philip Judson, one of the founding development scientists at Lhasa Limited, commented "When we set up Lhasa Limited in 1983 we thought we were creating an organisation with a future but I am not sure we would have believed you if you had told us that within thirty years it would be internationally renowned."

The 30^th year comes with some great news for the future direction and development of the charity. Its latest in silico tool for mutagenicity prediction, Sarah Nexus, was released in September 2013 and due to the continuing growth of the organisation Lhasa Limited has opened a new software development facility in Poznań, Poland and will be moving its UK head office to a new site within Leeds to cope with its expansion plans for the forthcoming years.  

One of the longest serving members of staff at Lhasa Limited, Dr. Jan Langowski, commented "It's a fabulous achievement from our humble beginning. Lhasa is a fantastic success story starting with an idea, to a charity with 80+ members of staff and a multi-million pound income, supporting both the local economy and international life sciences development and that delivers significant benefit to the public".

As a final word on the 30^th anniversary David Watson, CEO of Lhasa Limited, said "That Lhasa Limited is still going strong after 30 years is testimony to the scientific rigour, the commitment to our charitable aims and the enthusiasm of all of our staff and Trustees past and present that the last 30 years have been such a great success".

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 twenty-five 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 Derek Nexus for predicting toxicity, Vitic Nexus for managing chemical information, Meteor Nexus for predicting metabolic fate and Zeneth for predicting forced degradation pathways.

Contact: Matthew Lord +44(0)113-394-6091

SOURCE Lhasa Limited