Mind the Byte creates cloud platform for drug discovery

By Biocat

Start-up Mind the Byte has presented iMols, the first cloud platform in Spain designed for drug discovery. It is a tool that allows universities, research groups and companies to access intensive data-processing systems and cutting-edge scientific-technical software. Thus, it opens the doors to browsing public libraries, searching for proteins and molecules and creating and managing private libraries of compounds and proteins, among other functions.

Regarding calculation infrastructure, iMols offers basic services like keyword and molecular descriptor similarity searches, premium services that include virtual screening to find targets for molecules, and advanced searches using three-dimensional molecular comparison techniques.

The information stored in the cloud is only accessible to members of the team, “all user access to the site is encrypted with the same type of certificate used by banks for their online banking services,” assures Alfons Nonell-Canals, founder and CEO of Mind the Byte.

iMols is based on SaaS (Software as a Service), a pay-per-use software distribution system, instead of the traditional licensing system. As of March, Mind the Byte is the first company in Spain and the seventh in the world specializing in cloud solutions for cheminformatics and bioinformatics to be certified as a technology partner by the multinational Amazon Web Services (AWS).

The new platform was launched at the first edition of the conference on science and cloud services, SciCloud, held 12 June by Mind the Byte in collaboration with AWS and the Barcelona Science Park (PCB), where the start-up is located. The inaugural session was given by Dr. Montserrat Vendrell, CEO of Biocat, and Dr. Jesús Purroy, scientific director of the PCB.

Mind the Byte participated in the 2011 edition of the BioEmprenedorXXI program promoted by “la Caixa”, Barcelona Activa and Biocat.

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