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LEAD DISCOVERY SIENA

From research to drug: it’s a matter of chemistry

The idea of Lead Discovery Siena (LDS) was born in 2000 from a group of researchers and teachers of the Siena University Pharmaceutical, Chemistry and Technology Department. The Company was founded in 2012 as a small University spin off and represents nowadays a successful institution involved in the rational organization of new molecules of pharmaceutical interest through modeling techniques, library synthesis and pharmacological evaluation.
The Company, managed by one of the founders, Maurizio Botta, teacher at Siena University, is especially involved in projects concerning the oncological and anti-infective field. LDS research is focused on cancer and, in particular, on neuroblastoma, a specific kind of brain tumor which afflicts children, and glioblastoma, both without efficient therapies. The President, Maurizio Botta, explains in his interview the targets reached thanks to a molecules drawing and synthesis project, able to determine an important disease regression.
Anna Laura Brai, Chemist at LDS, explains then the researcher’s job in the company, from the first phase of identification of the target protein most indicated for the development of drugs, until drug synthesis and bio-distribution tests.
LDS also established many cooperations with academic institutions, hospitals and national and international research centres for the development of projects and know how exchange in the field of oncology and anti-infectives.
LDS is incubated in TLS since 2016.

For more information: leaddiscoverysiena.it/