NOV 8, 2023

In Silico Driven Drug Discovery of a Zwitterionic Integrin αvβ6 Development Candidate for Fibrosis

Speaker

Bryce A. Harrison
Director, Morphic Therapeutic

Abstract

Bryce A. Harrison is a medicinal chemist and project leader with 18 years of experience in the biotech sector, including his current role as Director in the chemistry group at Morphic Therapeutic. During this conversation, he will share how his team investigated a series of zwitterionic alpha amino acid αvβ6 inhibitors in a structurally enabled program using a variety of in silico techniques combined with traditional medicinal chemistry approaches – which led to the discovery of MORF-627, a highly potent and selective αvβ6 inhibitor development candidate.

Highlights

• Discover how in silico techniques combined with traditional medicinal chemistry approaches are applied in a structure-based drug discovery program
• See how the team overcame challenges of obtaining sufficient permeability for oral bioavailability and sufficient potency and selectivity over related targets using molecular modeling methods
• Learn how QM-based pKa prediction and Free Energy Perturbation (FEP+) were used to prioritize compounds and drive programs forward efficiently
• Ask questions to gain further insight from the speaker to apply to your work