LeadScope Announces ToxScope, Chem-tox Informatics Solution

In the interest of providing the best discovery-development platform for designing safer chemical products, LeadScope Inc, in collaboration with ddplatform LLC, introduces ToxScope, a series of toxicity databases.

Since 1997, LeadScope has focused on creating chemically intelligent decision-support software that meets the changing needs of life scientists. LeadScope's ToxScope correlates toxicity information with structural features of chemical libraries, and creates a data mining system that incorporates the advanced searching and browsing capabilities of the LeadScope Enterprise Server.

The new virtual decision-making software provides access to 150,000 chemical structures and expert statistical analysis of complex data to speed the process and cut the high costs of drug discovery. The ToxScope databases encompass acute toxicity, hepatotoxicity, mutagenicity and carcinogenicity.

ToxScope enables the user to make side-by-side comparisons of efficacy screening and toxicity information, use structural alerts from any source, explore chemical space of any data set and manage complex in-house data.

Also available with ToxScope are consulting services with ddplatform LLC and LeadScope for data mining of the customer's internal toxicity data.

"The ToxScope databases are designed to provide researchers access to a wide variety of toxicology information including chemical structure, other physico-chemical features, detailed toxicology information and, in some cases, unique grading algorithms for toxicity endpoints such as hepatotoxicity," notes Dale E. Johnson, PharmD, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of ddplatform LLC. "In our association with LeadScope Inc we have been impressed with the unique data mining capabilities of LeadScope software as a potential tool for both toxicologists and chemists to use during lead optimization and virtual screening."

LeadScope is currently working to incorporate data from other areas of drug discovery and development, including genomics. Another new product on the horizon is GeneScope, a gene expression analysis and chemical genomics system planned to be released in 2002. LeadScope also offers a desktop version of its LeadScope Enterprise -- Personal LeadScope -- currently used by more than 36 leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology sites to speed drug discovery and eliminate unnecessary costs.

LeadScope's, www.leadscope.com, expertise includes an in-depth knowledge of advanced informatics technology and the services necessary to help organizations effectively extract and visualize the valuable knowledge contained in research data. LeadScope Inc. is dedicated to working with their customers to shorten drug development time and dramatically increase the quality of research decisions.

ddplatform LLC is a private company of toxicology experts in Emeryville CA specializing in "in silico" and other innovative approaches to accelerate the discovery and development of new drug candidates. Contact djohnson@ddplatform.com.

Contact Glenn J.Myatt, Ph.D., vice president Marketing and Business Development of LeadScope Inc, 614-675-3731, gmyatt@leadscope.com.