UK Cancer Drug Discovery Database Goes 3D

Cancer Research's canSAR database, the world’s largest database for cancer drug discovery, has added 3D structures of faulty proteins and maps of cancer’s communication networks to allow scientists "to design new cancer treatments more effectively".

The canSAR database was launched in 2011 by researchers in the Cancer Research UK Cancer Therapeutics Unit at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR). The new version of the database uses artificial intelligence "to identify nooks and crannies on the surface of faulty cancer-causing molecules as a key step in designing new drugs to block them [and] allows scientists to identify communication lines that can be intercepted within tumour cells, opening up potential new approaches for cancer treatment", it is reported.

The database now holds the 3D structures of almost three million cavities on the surface of nearly 110,000 molecules. The resource is free to use for researchers around the world.

https://cansar.icr.ac.uk/