Late-need

Project description

We would like to present a proposal in this Proof of Concept call to verify the utility of a proprietary technology of the Research Group of Prof. Marcos García Suero at ICIQ in two urgent & unmet medical needs. We will generate new bioactive analogues of known antivirals and antibiotics against SARS-CoV-2 and Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria respectively, by a late-stage functionalization technology; and perform in vitro testing of antiviral and antibiotic activity.

The proprietary technology of the Suero laboratory published in Nature (2018, 554, 86) is based on the use of bespoke reagents with the capacity of transforming a CH bond in complex molecules into a chiral centre with a high degree of modularity. This concept has a potential which is unique in providing access to proprietary libraries of drug molecules with ease, which are very difficult or unthinkable by other means. We hope that the experimental proof of usefulness of the late-stage functionalization technology in the straightforward production of improved APIs from known drugs will increment the Technological Readiness Levels of the technology, while providing real-life applications in infectious diseases and awaken the interest of discovery departments of pharmaceutical companies.

El proyecto PDC2021-121180-100, financiado por CIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 y por la Unión Europea “NextGenerationEU”/PRTR.