WISDOM-I: Wide In Silico Docking On Malaria
Malaria is a dreadful disease caused by a protozoan parasite, plasmodium. A new strategy to fight malaria investigated within WISDOM aims at the haemoglobin metabolism, which is one of the key metabolic processes for the survival of the parasite. Plasmepsin, the aspartic protease of Plasmodium, is responsible for the initial cleavage of human haemoglobin. The goal was to identify which molecules could dock on the protein active sites in order to inhibit its action and therefore interfere with the molecular processes essential for the pathogen.
WISDOM aims to demonstrate the relevance and the impact of the grid approach to address drug discovery for neglected diseases. This first biomedical data challenge in the EGEE infrastructure is a scalability step through towards a full in silico drug discovery platform.
