We design molecules and develop technologies to cure human diseases and accelerate drug discovery. Our research programme uses chemistry-centric approaches to interrogate biological systems and to modulate target-ligand interactions that underlie infection, cancer, and neurodegenerative disorders.
Our research programme is focused on chemistry-centric approaches to address unmet medical needs, including:
Targeting infectious diseases with small molecules
Our program is focused on identifying lead compounds to treat diseases such malaria and tuberculosis, with particular interest in multi-targeting drug design approaches.
Covalent inhibitors and chemical probes
We develop suitable photoaffinity and activity-based probes to identify new drug targets in proteomes, and apply these findings to design novel therapeutic tools to accelerate the discovery.
Targeted therapies for cancer and inflammation
We are focused on discovering and optimizing ligands for targets that remain poorly ‘druggable’. In addition, we design prodrugs and drug delivery platforms tailored for unique metabolic signatures found in tumors.
Artificial intelligence for drug discovery
We are interested in implementing bespoke software harnessing both supervised and unsupervised machine learning to accelerate drug discovery and processes.
Lee K, Yang A, Lin Y-C, Reker D, Bernardes G.J.L., Rodrigues T. Combating small molecule aggragation with machine learning. Cell Reports Physical Science 2021; 2 (9): 100573. DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrp.2021.100573
- September 22, 2021
- Medicinal Chemistry
Gomes-Alves AG, Duarte M, Cruz T, Castro H, Lopes F, Moreira R, Ressurreição AS, Tomás AM. Quinolin-(1H)-imines as a new chemotype against leishmaniasis: biological evaluation and mechanistic studies. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 2021; Apr 26:AAC.01513-20. DOI: 10.1128/AAC.01513-20.
- June 17, 2021
- Medicinal Chemistry
Reker D, Hoyt EA, Bernardes G.J.L., Rodrigues T. Adaptive optimization of chemical reactions with minimal experimental information. Cell Reports Physical Science 2020; 1 (11): 100247. DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrp.2020.100247
- November 18, 2020
- Medicinal Chemistry
Milheiro SA, Gonçalves J, Lopes RM, Madureira M, Lobo L, Lopes A, Nogueira F, Fontinha D, Prudêncio M, Piedade MFM, Pinto SN, Florindo PR, Moreira R. Half-sandwich cyclopentadienylruthenium(II) complexes: a new antimalarial chemotype. Inorg Chem 2020; 59: 12722–12732. DOI: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.0c01795.
- August 24, 2020
- Medicinal Chemistry
Carvalho L, Almeida V, Brito JA, Lum K, Oliveira T, Guedes RC, Gonçalves LMD, Lucas S, Cravatt B, Archer M, Moreira R. 3-Oxo-β-Sultam as a sulfonylating chemotype for inhibition of serine hydrolases and activity-based protein profiling. ACS Chem Biol 2020; 15: 878-883. DOI: 10.1021/acschembio.0c00090.
- March 16, 2020
- Medicinal Chemistry
Filipa A, Moreira R, Rodrigues T. Synthetic organic chemistry driven by artificial intelligence. Nat Rev Chem 2019; 3: 589-604. DOI: 10.1038/s41570-019-0124-0.
- August 21, 2019
- Medicinal Chemistry
Braga C, Vaz AR, Oliveira MC, Marques MM, Moreira R, Brites D, Perry MJ. Targeting gliomas with triazene-based hybrids: structure-activity relationship, mechanistic study and stability. Eur J Med Chem 2019; 172: 16-25. DOI: 10.1016/j.ejmech.2019.03.048.
- June 15, 2019
- Medicinal Chemistry
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- Lab keywords:
- Medicinal chemistry; New therapeutic modalities; Cheminformatics for automated drug discovery; Prodrug chemistry & drug targeting; Chemical probes & target identification
- Primary area of ıntegration within imed:
- Emerging Technologies, Technologic Hub
- Secondary area(s) of ıntegration within imed:
- Infectious Diseases, Neurodegenerative Disorders, Oncology, Scientific Hub