Parkinson's UK, the largest charitable funder of Parkinson's research in Europe, has announced today that it is using Collaborative Drug Discovery's CDD Vault informatics system to manage project data from the Parkinson's Virtual Biotech, its pioneering drug discovery arm.

The Parkinson's Virtual Biotech, which launched in 2017, is a program that is plugging the funding gap in drug development to fast-track the projects with the greatest scientific potential to transform the lives of people with Parkinson's. As part of the collaboration, CDD Vault will help the charity keep its research data safe and secure. It will also enable scientists to analyze data and design the next set of biological molecules.

A project led by the University of Sheffield is the first from the Parkinson's Virtual Biotech initiative to use the innovative platform. Researchers and contract research organization collaborators are using the CDD Vault in their work to refine molecules that could boost the function of the brain's energy-producing mitochondria, to halt Parkinson's - something no treatment can currently do. The project will develop molecules that restore mitochondrial function in dopamine neurons derived from people with Parkinson's and are able to get into the brain. CDD Vault has been implemented to manage the stream of chemistry and biological data coming from the different project workstreams and enable collaboration amongst members of each project.

CDD Vault is a highly secure hosted data management platform that enables scientists working on a project to interact seamlessly. This enables the virtual research team to operate as if it were in a single location. With modules for Activity & Registration, Inventory, Visualization, and Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN), CDD Vault will be the central hub of the research activities of this pioneering drug discovery project.

"We evaluated several data management systems and data sharing options. We found that CDD Vault encompasses both aspects in a single straightforward software solution. We moved our data and collaborators into one platform in a short period of time," said Dr. Heather Mortiboys, lead investigator on the project at the Sheffield Institute of Translational Neuroscience, "The help that we received from the support team from CDD was invaluable in the early stages of the project."

"CDD understood the magnitude of the challenge that we are facing and helped us implement CDD Vault to deal with the data produced from our projects. We didn't need to rely on IT, nor was there any cumbersome process, making the whole deployment cost-effective, which is a very important factor for a charitable organization like us," said Dr. Richard Morphy, Drug Discovery Manager at Parkinson's UK, "We found that CDD understood our requirements and our situation. Together we implemented a platform that will help us to develop better drug treatments for people living with Parkinson's."

"We believe that the work that Parkinson's UK is doing in general, and specifically through the Parkinson's Virtual Biotech, will significantly change the research paradigm in this area as a whole. It is a true honor to support their drug discovery process with CDD Vault," said Dr. Mariana Vaschetto, Head of Operations EMEA from CDD, "CDD Vault has for a long time been the platform of choice for CNS related research and we are delighted to assist Parkinson's UK in their quest to find a cure for this debilitating condition."

About Parkinson's and Parkinson's UK

Parkinson's is what happens when the brain cells that make dopamine start to die. There are more than 40 symptoms, from tremor and pain to anxiety. Some are treatable, but the drugs can have serious side effects. It gets worse over time and there's no cure. Yet.

Parkinson's is the fastest growing neurological condition in the world. Around 145,000 people in the UK have Parkinson's.

About The Parkinson's Virtual Biotech

People with Parkinson's urgently need new treatments. But right now, there's a huge gap in drug development. The Parkinson's Virtual Biotech exists to bridge that critical funding shortage.

It takes the most promising research and partners with institutions and pharmaceutical companies worldwide to develop the findings into plausible drug treatments. Currently there are projects at the non-clinical, preclinical and early clinical development stages.

With no large teams of scientists or expensive labs to run, the Parkinson's Virtual Biotech ensures that every penny of the annual ￡4m investment goes on what matters most: fast tracking the projects with the greatest potential to transform the lives of people with Parkinson's.

No one else is doing this. It's a bold risk. But we believe it will deliver a groundbreaking new treatment by 2024. Because people with Parkinson's won't wait. Together, we'll find a cure.

About The University of Sheffield

With almost 29,000 of the brightest students from over 140 countries, learning alongside over 1,200 of the best academics from across the globe, the University of Sheffield is one of the world's leading universities.

A member of the UK's prestigious Russell Group of leading research-led institutions, Sheffield offers world-class teaching and research excellence across a wide range of disciplines.

Unified by the power of discovery and understanding, staff and students at the university are committed to finding new ways to transform the world we live in.

Sheffield is the only university to feature in The Sunday Times 100 Best Not-For-Profit Organisations to Work For 2018 and for the last eight years has been ranked in the top five UK universities for Student Satisfaction by Times Higher Education.

Sheffield has six Nobel Prize winners among former staff and students and its alumni go on to hold positions of great responsibility and influence all over the world, making significant contributions in their chosen fields.

Global research partners and clients include Boeing, Rolls-Royce, Unilever, AstraZeneca, Glaxo SmithKline, Siemens and Airbus, as well as many UK and overseas government agencies and charitable foundations. 

About Collaborative Drug Discovery, Inc.

CDD's 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.