Novasite develops drugs for diseases of the central nervous system and other areas of unmet medical needs. The company utilizes its understanding of structure-function relationships for validated G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) targets to find better GPCR modulating drugs. In june 2005, the firm acquired PsyCheNomicS, a drug discovery company focused on diseases of the central nervous system. Novasite Pharmaceuticals is a majority-owned subsidiary of Applied Molecular Evolution, Inc. (AME) (NASDAQ: AMEV)- itself a fully involved SBIR-STTR firm. Novasite uses directed evolution technology to enhance small molecule drug discovery and optimization. Novasite's proprietary Expanded Target Drug Discovery(TM) technology enhances high throughput screening (HTS) by screening chemical libraries against thousands of variants of the target's binding site. The expanded recognition properties of the variant target library enable the identification of novel and high potency leads. Bioinformatic analysis of the large amount of data regarding specific ligand-receptor interactions obtained by the Expanded Target Drug Discovery(TM) approach serves to guide the lead optimization process.
