Sophion-hit-to-lead

Hit to Lead process in drug discovery

The hit to Lead stage in drug discovery is the process of transforming a lead compound (a molecule that shows potential as a drug) identified in the screening phase into a drug candidate. This involves testing the lead compound for potency, efficacy, selectivity and toxicity to generating new leads through structure-activity relationship (SAR) studies and computational drug design. During this phase, medicinal chemists and scientists develop and optimize lead compounds to improve their target-binding affinity and pharmacological properties.

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  • "In the past, if I was lucky, I could fully test one compound for full dose responses on one ion channel in one day. Now I can test eight compounds on three ion channels and get full dose responses. It’s a huge difference"

    Nina Ottosson, Senior Research Coordinator, Linköping University, Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, Division of Neurobiology

  • "We let Qube 384 run our large screening campaigns unattended during the night, so we can develop new assays on the same instruments during the day"

    Juha Kammonen, Charles River Laboratories, Senior Research Leader Early Discovery

  • "For over a decade, we have used Sophion QPatch to support hit-to-lead and lead optimization, in addition to cardiac safety profiling. The addition of a QPatch II and a Qube 384 upgrades and extends our capacity for these efforts and now adds a Sophion platform for electrophysiology-based high-throughput screening. "

    Caterina Virginio, PhD, Evotec, Discovery Electrophysiology Senior Manager

  • "A good field service and application support from Sophion enable us to sustain our operations with minimal interruption or unnecessary delays"

    Caterina Virginio, PhD, Evotec, Discovery Electrophysiology Senior Manager

  • "Our collaboration with Sophion and access to their expertise is a real-world example of what you can achieve with automated patch clamping and an expert supplier"

    Fredrik Elinder, Professor, Linköping University, Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, Division of Neurobiology

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