Kick-off meeting of the BMBF-funded project “EKIKO - Experimental and AI-based evaluation processes for the development of covalent active ingredients”
There are still many diseases that can only be treated inadequately or not at all with today's pharmaceuticals. For this reason, the development of new active substances remains an important task in modern biomedicine in order to be able to combat life-threatening diseases in the future, or to improve the quality of life of those affected. However, drug discovery, i.e. early drug research, is a challenging task − the research costs are high and success is uncertain. If the development of an active ingredient fails, this can lead to high economic losses for the company. Biochemical and biophysical methods help to reduce this risk. With their help, researchers can decide at an early stage which drug candidates are worth further development.
However, these methods do not yet work equally well for all types of active substances − while the approach is already well established for small, reversible-binding molecules, the situation is more complicated for active substances that bind covalently, i.e. firmly, to their target structure. “In our EKIKO project, we therefore want to establish experimental and computer-aided evaluation strategies for covalent-binding drug candidates,” explains Nicolas Werbeck, Professor of Chemical Foundations of Biomedicine at the Faculty of Health, Medical and Life Sciences at HFU. In this way, the team, which includes Werbeck from HFU, Professor Matthias Kohl and the two project members Defne Dayi and Marian Freisleben, together with the project partner, Nuvisan ICB GmbH, aims to improve the discovery process for this promising class of active substances.
The project, which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of the “Research at Universities of Applied Sciences” funding programme, started in October 2024. The team met for a joint kick-off meeting on 25 February 2025. On the premises of Nuvisan ICB GmbH in Berlin and with Nuvisan scientists Dr. Volker Badock and Dr. Raphael Böhm and their colleagues, the project members discussed the initial results. They were also able to gain an impression of the laboratory processes and methods at the industrial partner's premises. “We got off to a good start,” says Werbeck enthusiastically. “We're looking forward to the next few years of joint work, with which we hope to make an important contribution to this topic of high social and industrial relevance.”
The project “EKIKO - Experimental and AI-based evaluation processes for the development of covalent active substances” is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) / Research at Universities of Applied Sciences funding programme / FKZ: 13FH564KX2