Press Releases

TeraDisc Forms Alliance with Duke University

Infinity Venture Group provides company management services to TeraDisc, a rational drug design company

Durham, NC (10/1/08)…Infinity Venture Group announced that it has helped TeraDisc LLC form a comprehensive set of agreements with Duke University to provide core software and proof of concept studies to TeraDisc for new methods in “in silico” drug discovery. The agreements call for funding to be provided by TeraDisc to Duke University to support post doctoral research to test and evaluate a software system known as “Inverse Design.”

The aim of this joint venture between TeraDisc and Duke University is to use a new computational chemistry tool for generating lead molecules for drug design, using the inverse-design method. Two computational methods, the QM/MM docking mechanism, developed by the Yang group, and the inverse design method, developed jointly by the Beratan and Yang groups at Duke University, will be used to as a first step in developing new drugs, by searching a large part of chemical space for ligands that will be better binders to a specific therapeutic target.

According to Dr. Edwin Addision, Infinity Venture Group partner and acting TeraDisc CEO, “Inverse Design will revolutionize the market for drug discovery by bypassing much of the early trial and error process of traditional wet lab chemistry. It uses a rational approach to drug design based upon target characteristics, rather than a random shot gun approach such as HTS”.

In addition, the agreements between TeraDisc and Duke University provide exclusive, world wide licensing to Inverse Design for commercial use. TeraDisc plans to demonstrate Inverse Design through several drug discovery efforts in the oncology market. Successful results are expected to be licensed to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical markets. Further, TeraDisc expects to license the Inverse Design platform to the pharmaceutical market for development of its own drugs.

About Infinity Venture Group

Infinity Venture Group provides comprehensive venture management consulting and capital to maximize the commercial value of technology. We help to define, fund, and execute profitable information technology, life sciences, greentech, and alternative energy ventures. Infinity Venture Group has established relationships with universities, government and corporate labs and has extensive experience transitioning technology from the laboratory to the marketplace. For information visit www.infinityvg.com.

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