Medicine
Medications based on certain transition metals of negligible toxicity have been studied for decades, and some have emerged as leading drugs in the fight against diseases including cancer. However, one of the main problems faced by these metal-based drugs is that in vivo they can decompose with relative rapidity (hours in some cases). For example, ligands bound to a metal outside of the body dissociate from the metal once inside the cellular environment, and can be replaced by ligands already present in the cell (e.g., nitrogen atoms of DNA bases). Therefore, these drugs are best classified as prodrugs. In other words, the active form of the drug inside the body may be both unknown and less effective in its potency than the as-designed drug, which limits the scientist's ability to more effectively redesign these drugs ex vivo.
Creative Chemistry will use proprietary ligands specially-designed to robustly bind biologically-safe metals, limiting or precluding ligand exchange in vivo. In effect, the goal is to produce drugs that maintain their structural integrity both ex and in vivo. As a socially conscious company, every effort will be made to ensure our drug design principles are primarily based upon strategies which minimize both cost of precursor materials and number of synthetic steps, which will ultimately deliver the lowest possible production cost. Recently, through a collaboration with the Gray Group of Case Western Reserve University and the Innovation Incentive Program, a nanomedicine initiative will be also be pursued (see Collaborations for more info).
|
|