Chinese company HitGen and the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) have entered a research collaboration to discover drugs based on a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)-encoded library (DEL). 

HitGen will leverage its DEL technology platform, specifically the OpenDEL self-service DEL kit, for screening under-represented targets selected by SGC. 

The screening datasets are ready for machine learning (ML) and will be made available on a public portal.

The approach will aid global specialists in drug discovery and ML to predict new active molecules that SGC will advance for testing.

HitGen CEO and board chairman Dr Jin Li stated: “We look forward to working with the research teams at SGC to generate novel starting points for under-studied proteins and to place ML-ready representations of the data into the public domain on an open access basis. 

“As one of HitGen’s four core technology platforms, our world-leading DEL platform is an efficient "engine" to advance drug discovery and has enabled hit identification and lead generation for many innovative discovery programmes by our customers and partners.”

HitGen focuses on developing DEL technology and applications that can be used for discovering early-stage small molecules. 

Its platform comprises more than 1.2 trillion small molecules created using DEL technology. The company’s screening method has also facilitated a number of global enterprises to carry out drug discovery activities.

OpenDEL has more than three billion compounds and can be leveraged to run affinity screening experiments against protein targets in labs.