Working jointly to develop an application helping scientists examine the structure of the COVID-19 disease-causing coronavirus

Fragalysis, a scientific application we actively participate to develop, is a web platform for drug discovery. Data collection is ensured by Diamond by means of X-ray screening, which is currently one of the most effective methods. It allows to screen 1,000 compounds a week, thus building a huge database of chemical compounds. The data describes protein-bound molecules, which is the basis for early drug development.

Computational power behind the Fragalysis application is especially useful for trained scientists who have the expert knowledge to devise intricate algorithms aimed at solving complex problems, for instance, when developing new drugs. At present, the application is publicly available to anyone free of charge, but a fee is required to access the application for development and work with compounds and algorithms.

Use of the Fragalysis application enables to forecast the potential development of individual chemical compounds and find the missing parts of complex molecules. Thence, the application can be used for development of vaccines and drugs for new diseases. Fragalysis will make it possible to respond quickly to severe situations and threats of new viruses by facilitating the development on the basis of collected data and predicting the behaviour of molecules in chemical compounds.

Currently, Diamond collaborates in combating the COVID-19 disease, being able to identify the new structure of the main protease behind SARS-CoV-2 (MPro) in high resolution and assembling the crystallographic XChem fragments. The data from the first experiments is available now, and further observations and experiments are underway with continuous publication of updates.

In short, we can say that the application is able to deliver results by screening, thus helping to reveal the structure of the new coronavirus protease, which is very important to scientists in the present day situation.

We are glad that M2M Solutions takes part in the development of this application and participates on a team working towards tackling the most urgent problems of today. As Diamond's Professor Frank von Delft commented on our part in the application's development: "What you have done is amazing. Last year we would not even think of any possibilities of such a development. We are enthusiastic about the application's speed."