Carromex: rapid drug analysis and discovery with cloud tech
Based in Australia, Carromex - a mathematical research-based innovation company - has unveiled a new cloud-based pharmaceutical software platform known as Pharma Leads. The platform is expected to significantly contribute to advancing the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry.
The platform is said to provide two unique benefits for pharmaceutical companies and researchers:
- Potential treatments can be discovered by inputting the genetic sequence of a disease into the platform, in order to dramatically reduce the time and costs associated with searching for a treatment.
- Researchers and pharmaceutical companies can rapidly assess the safety and efficacy of potential treatments by analysing its genetic makeup to test whether it will be harmful to the human body.
The development of the cloud based platform was first made by Dr. Burzin Bhavnagri while taking his Ph. D. at the University of Adelaide. The platform is now available publicly for the first time.
"Representational Consistency is an exciting and entirely new field of mathematics. In my thesis on the development of "Computer Vision using Shape Spaces" and my desire to apply the theory to a real-world example of cancer drug treatment, I discovered a formula which led to the creation of Pharma Leads", commented Dr. Burzin.
The history behind Pharma Leads
In 2012, by utilising his discovery of ‘representational consistency’ Dr Burzin, began his research into the 30 known definite carcinogens listed by the International Agency of Cancer Research (IARC), discovering a link between representational inconsistency and carcinogens, which prompted his search for a cancer treatment using this theory.
After discovering that the same process could be applied to drastically reduce the research time and costs associated with drug development and discovery, the knowledge led to the creation of the Pharma Leads platform.
Harnessing computer vision to revolutionise the pharmaceutical industry
Pharma Leads, developed by Carromex is “an interactive online program that works in silico without the need for a database which can systematically analyse a chemical structure or gene sequence,” explained Carromex in a company statement.
This innovative platform provides the user access to a list of amino acids for a protein sequence as well as a list of nucleic acids for a gene sequence. Users can also enter the name of the medicines or their chemical structure to analyse a drug’s safety and efficacy.
"Users can choose from searching for a treatment or analyze how a chemical compound may interact with RNA or DNA, for instance, Acetaminophen," Dr Burzin explained further.
Currently the Pharma Leads platform developed by Carromex is available on Google Cloud for users in the United States.
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