Group: ---- Structural bioinformàtics, Baldomero Oliva Computational Biochemistry and Biophysics, Jordi Villà-Freixa Computational Genomics, Mar Albà Computer-Assisted Drug Design, Manuel Pastor Biomedical inforamatics, Ferran Sanz Chemogenomics, Jordi Mestres

CancerGRID is another case of EU-funded project with the participation of scientists from different GRIB labs (J. Mestres, I. Zamora and F. Sanz). The aim of this project is to develop and refine methods for the enrichment of molecular libraries in order to facilitate the discovery of potential anti-cancer agents. The same strategy is being followed in proposals submitted to the first calls of the EU 7th Framework Programme. A clear example of it is the ALERT project for the early detection of adverse drug events by integrative mining of clinical records and biomedical knowledge, which has been selected for funding in the first call and will start by the beginning of 2008. The GRIB contribution in ALERT will be mainly carried out by the groups led by J. Mestres and F. Sanz and will be focused on the automatic generation of scientifically and mechanistically sound explanations for the signals obtained from the mining of clinical records by means of a combination of analyses of biomedical literature and databases, in silico predictions and pathway mapping.

At the Spanish level, the same integrative philosophy inspired GRIB participation in the INBIOMED thematic network funded by the ISCIII , which lasted from 2003 to 2006. A new thematic network proposal (COMBIOMED) has been submitted to the 2007 call of the ISCIII. The participation of the GRIB in the Spanish National Institute of Bioinformatics is another example of the joint participation of several GRIB labs in strategic initiatives.

On the other hand, F. Sanz is particularly interested in the application of biomedical informatics in the pharmaceutical domain. I this field, he is currently interested in the integrative knowledge management and exploitation. His participation in the European www.imi-europe.org and Spanish www.medicamentos-innovadores.org Technology Platforms on Innovative Medicines are key activities in such a domain. In particular, he is acting as expert by invitation of the European Commission and EFPIA, and he is coordinating the Spanish Platform.

Another collaborative initiative in the pharmaceutical field that is being promoted is the ChemBioBank, a joint initiative of the Barcelona Scientific Park, the Pharmacological Screening Platform of the University of Santiago de Compostela and the GRIB (Jordi Mestres and Ferran Sanz). The aim is the collection, in vitro and in silico annotation, and the dissemination and exploitation of the publicly-generated Spanish chemical diversity.

A selection of recent scientific publications of F. Sanz is: 

• Gutiérrez-de-Terán H, Centeno NB, Pastor M, Sanz F. Novel approaches for modeling of the A1 adenosine receptor and its agonist binding site. Proteins 2004; 54:705-15. 
• Fontaine F, Pastor M, Sanz F. Incorporating Molecular Shape into the Alignment-free GRid-INdependent Descriptors (GRIND). J Med Chem 2004; 47: 2805-15. 
• Fontaine F, Pastor M, Zamora I, Sanz F. Anchor-GRIND: Filling the gap between standard 3D-QSAR and the GRid-INdependent Descriptors. J Med Chem 2005; 48: 2687-94. 
• Bonis J, Furlong LI, Sanz F. OSIRIS: a tool for retrieving literature about sequence variants. Bioinformatics 2006; 22: 2567-9. 
• Dezi C, Brea J, Alvarado M, Raviña E, Masaguer CF, Loza MI, Sanz F, Pastor M. Multi-structure 3D-QSAR studies on a series of conformationally constrained butyrophenones docked into a new homology model of the 5-HT2A receptor. J Med Chem 2007; 50: 3242-55. 
• Klinger R, Furlong LI, Friedrich CM, Mevissen HT, Fluck J, Sanz F, Hofmann-Apitius M. Identifying Gene Specific Variations in Biomedical Text. J Bioinform Comput Biol (in press).