SYSTEMS
Mercury Computer Systems and Pfizer Support Malaria Research
Mercury Computer Systems announced an agreement for no-cost licensing of Pfizer's Mercury-based MoViT software to Dr. David Matthews, for use in the support of the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV). Medicines for Malaria Venture is a nonprofit organization committed to discovering, developing and delivering affordable antimalarial drugs. Dr. Matthews, who recently retired from Pfizer, is providing pro-bono services to MMV. 
Mercury's amira visualization software, based on Version 6.0 of Open Inventor by Mercury Computer Systems, forms the basis for Pfizer's computational biochemistry MoViT software, currently being used by Dr. Matthews to design compounds to help battle malaria for MMV. The compounds will be used to overcome the resistance that malaria protozoa, or single-cell organisms, have developed over time to classical antifolate drugs successfully used in the past to treat the devastating disease. Using Mercury's technology and Pfizer's software, the project has made significant advances over the past 18 months, helping to further MMV's mission. "Mercury Computer Systems and Pfizer have developed molecular modeling software that provides a powerful computer-based environment for studying the interaction between candidate drug molecules and their malaria protein targets," said Dr. Matthews. "This software environment is now being effectively applied to better understand structural changes [mutations] that have occurred in a specific malaria protein, dihydrofolate reductase, in response to a previously used class of antimalarial drugs. Because of these drug-induced mutations, the compounds are now less effective in treating the disease. The MoVIT software has been an important tool in facilitating the design of new compounds with greatly increased efficacy against these mutated strains of malaria." Malaria currently kills between one and two million people annually; the majority of its victims are young children and pregnant women. Along with AIDS and tuberculosis, malaria is one of the world's worst communicable diseases, with an estimated 500 million new cases each year. Although antimalarial drugs have saved hundreds of millions of lives in the past, they have a limited useful life, as do other drugs for infectious diseases, and will eventually need replacing. In fact, drug resistance to older antimalarial drugs is now so prevalent that the public health systems in disease-endemic countries that rely on these drugs have very few effective or affordable options. With better scientific knowledge, it is increasingly possible to develop drugs with longer, more useful lives for treating malaria, and to make a significant health and economic impact on the people and communities affected by this disease. Mercury is committed to bringing innovation and new products in the space of computational drug discovery. The use of Version 6.0 of Open Inventor by Mercury Computer Systems and the amira software application in conjunction with MMV is the first of a number of projects in which Mercury is developing state-of-the-art structural drug design and analysis solutions for pharmaceutical customers. "We are thrilled to see our technology being used in the global quest to defeat malaria," said Marcelo Lima, Vice President and General Manager of the Commercial Imaging and Visualization business at Mercury. "Our Version 6.0 of Open Inventor by Mercury Computer Systems and amira software solutions are designed to enable rapid 3D visualization of complex data, providing instant access to valuable information, a crucial step in the drug and treatment discovery and development process. Mercury's technology and software arm researchers and scientists with unprecedented power and sophistication to develop treatments for malaria."
Mercury's amira visualization software, based on Version 6.0 of Open Inventor by Mercury Computer Systems, forms the basis for Pfizer's computational biochemistry MoViT software, currently being used by Dr. Matthews to design compounds to help battle malaria for MMV. The compounds will be used to overcome the resistance that malaria protozoa, or single-cell organisms, have developed over time to classical antifolate drugs successfully used in the past to treat the devastating disease. Using Mercury's technology and Pfizer's software, the project has made significant advances over the past 18 months, helping to further MMV's mission. "Mercury Computer Systems and Pfizer have developed molecular modeling software that provides a powerful computer-based environment for studying the interaction between candidate drug molecules and their malaria protein targets," said Dr. Matthews. "This software environment is now being effectively applied to better understand structural changes [mutations] that have occurred in a specific malaria protein, dihydrofolate reductase, in response to a previously used class of antimalarial drugs. Because of these drug-induced mutations, the compounds are now less effective in treating the disease. The MoVIT software has been an important tool in facilitating the design of new compounds with greatly increased efficacy against these mutated strains of malaria." Malaria currently kills between one and two million people annually; the majority of its victims are young children and pregnant women. Along with AIDS and tuberculosis, malaria is one of the world's worst communicable diseases, with an estimated 500 million new cases each year. Although antimalarial drugs have saved hundreds of millions of lives in the past, they have a limited useful life, as do other drugs for infectious diseases, and will eventually need replacing. In fact, drug resistance to older antimalarial drugs is now so prevalent that the public health systems in disease-endemic countries that rely on these drugs have very few effective or affordable options. With better scientific knowledge, it is increasingly possible to develop drugs with longer, more useful lives for treating malaria, and to make a significant health and economic impact on the people and communities affected by this disease. Mercury is committed to bringing innovation and new products in the space of computational drug discovery. The use of Version 6.0 of Open Inventor by Mercury Computer Systems and the amira software application in conjunction with MMV is the first of a number of projects in which Mercury is developing state-of-the-art structural drug design and analysis solutions for pharmaceutical customers. "We are thrilled to see our technology being used in the global quest to defeat malaria," said Marcelo Lima, Vice President and General Manager of the Commercial Imaging and Visualization business at Mercury. "Our Version 6.0 of Open Inventor by Mercury Computer Systems and amira software solutions are designed to enable rapid 3D visualization of complex data, providing instant access to valuable information, a crucial step in the drug and treatment discovery and development process. Mercury's technology and software arm researchers and scientists with unprecedented power and sophistication to develop treatments for malaria."