Empowering Collaboration in Drug Discovery: CDD Vault and the COVID Moonshot

The COVID Moonshot project stands as an example of global scientific unity and innovation in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. This collaboration, comprising institutions such as Diamond Light Source, University of Oxford, UCB Pharma, and many others, embarked on an urgent mission to develop antivirals to combat COVID-19. A key milestone of this effort has been published in the article "Open science discovery of potent noncovalent SARS-CoV-2 main protease inhibitors".

A recent article published in Science highlights the collaboration's achievements, including the discovery of potent antivirals, building open knowledge bases, and functioning as an information-exchange hub, thus setting new benchmarks in the field of drug discovery.

At the heart of this collaborative success is not just the human spirit, but also technological aids like the CDD Vault informatics platform, which played a crucial role in managing the complexity of this grand collaboration.

CDD Vault's Contribution to the COVID Moonshot Project:

1) Streamlining Data Management: Amidst this flurry of collaborative activity, CDD Vault provided a framework for managing the extensive data generated. Its role as a centralized hub for chemical and biological data from various sources streamlined the collaborative process, ensuring efficiency and coherence in data handling.

2) Enabling Efficient Collaboration: By facilitating real-time data sharing and analysis, CDD Vault significantly contributed to the project’s pace. This feature allowed researchers across the globe to work in synergy, rapidly iterating and refining their approaches based on shared insights.

The collaboration's achievements in rapidly advancing drug discovery and testing numerous compounds in record time have set new benchmarks in the field.

To gain more insights into the collaborative dynamics of the COVID Moonshot project and how CDD Vault contributed to its efficiency, watch this presentation by Dr. Lizbe Koekemoer of Oxford University as well as our recorded webinar featuring key project contributors. 

About Collaborative Drug Discovery

CDD’s (www.collaborativedrug.com) flagship product, “CDD Vault®” is used to manage chemical registration, structure-activity relationships (SAR), and securely scale collaborations. CDD Vault® is a hosted database solution for secure management and sharing of biological and chemical data. It lets you intuitively organize chemical structures and biological study data, and collaborate with internal or external partners through an easy to use web interface. Available modules within CDD Vault include Activity & Registration, Visualization, Inventory, and ELN.