FAQ
Providing Compounds
You can provide as many samples as you wish. You can start with a few samples and send more samples at a later stage. Therefore, we will send you a starter kit with 100 tared vials, so-called X-Vials, to fill with your compounds. If you need more, we can provide you with extra vials that you can fill at a future date.
Yes, we need the structure of your compound to store the data in our database. Without the structure (or amino acid sequence for peptides) a registration is not possible. We keep these data to be able to select compounds for assays according to their structure.
You can use the template given for the MTA appendix to submit your compound information. If you enter a ChemDraw-File or the sequence of the amino acid, your compounds can be registered. If you prefer to add your structure in form of canonical smiles code, this is supported as well. Please add the data to the given template and email it to us.
The vials provided are suitable for storing solid, liquid or oily substances. The compounds are not stored under inert gas atmosphere and should therefore be sufficiently stable in presence of oxygen.
All compounds have to be pure, but we also accept mixtures of isomers, enantiomers and diastereomers. Please add the available information to the submission template of the MTA appendix.
The purity of the samples should be >90%, proven by NMR spectra, HPLC chromatograms or comparable analytical techniques. We offer purification by preparative HPLC for compounds of lower purity. In this case please inform us about the respective substances.
For a comprehensive characterization, we recommend providing at least 10 mg of substance. If you have less, we will register the compound as well, but the use of the material will be limited to particular screens and applications. In any case, an amount of 1 mg will be retained as pure substance in the archive.
Compounds that are hardly soluble in common solvents are registered as well and stored as reference compound for diverse applications. However, samples that are provided for biological screens should be soluble in DMSO (or water, at least to some extent).
We check the purity of all incoming compounds and prepare 10 mM stock solutions in DMSO. Stock solutions and pure materials are stored according to the given details in your submission template or according to our standards at -20 °C.
We provide your compounds for academic screening initiatives with our partner sites. The availability depends on the capacity of the partners. For more information on our partner sites feel free to contact us or check the section Screening on our webpage.
Yes, you can influence the distribution of your compounds and select the biological partners that should be supported by your compounds. Please indicate a limited use of your compounds in the MTA.
We will provide feedback on a regular basis and on request, if there is the need for additional input.
Screening and Testing
We prepare the tubes or microtiter plates according to requirements of the screening partners. The compounds can be sent as stock solutions (typically in DMSO) or evaporated. The in-house storage is adapted to the use of 10 mM DMSO stock solutions. Please contact us for particular requests.
Depending on your capacity, we offer compounds for large-scale screening campaigns as well as small-scale single assays. We can provide single compounds as well as medium- or large-size libraries that you can use for your assays or screening campaigns.
According to your needs and the biological system you are working with, we can offer compounds that have been selected for a particular target or compositions of substances from different compound classes. We offer and prepare the compounds according to the requirements of the providers.
Yes, we do. Please contact us to request a selected collection.
The size of the total collection is more than 11,000 unique compounds, which we can provide all at once or in several deliveries depending on your capacities. The size of the diversity-based selection can be adapted to your specific requirements. Usually we offer subsets of 100 to 200 compounds.
Yes, we have compounds that are considered to be ‘drug-like’ or ‘lead-like’. However, not all of them fulfill the requirements. The latter ones that are not considered to be ‘drug-like’ are for example precursors. We are using FAFDrug3 as structural filters for filtering our compound library.
We do not provide unstable or volatile compounds for biological applications. All compounds that we synthesize and store are stable at room temperature under normal laboratory conditions (at least initially). The compounds that are shown to decompose are eliminated from the libraries as soon as we notice the instability. Since numerous compounds have already been used in other screens, we also have data on toxicity. However, those data are not comprehensive and also derived from different model systems and therefore cannot be used for general conclusions about the toxic nature of a compound.
For the compounds that have been synthesized in-house, we store the synthetic procedure to allow a fast resynthesis of the compounds. For all other compounds, the availability of protocols depends on the providing chemist.
Screeners and Providers
We can do basic calculation of physicochemical and structural properties, such as logP, number of hydrogen bond donor or acceptors, etc. For particular applications, we have partners in the field of computational chemistry or drug design who can perform predictions, simulations and calculations in a collaborative approach.
We will provide a MTA that arranges the rights of the screener and provider. The Molecule Archive has no rights in the compounds or their results. The IP of the compound is that of the providing chemist and the IP of the screening result belongs to the screener. If there is any activity, then it is recommended to publish that together (for important results) or without the partner (but with the agreement of the screener or provider who is not participating). The latter model appears e.g. if the results of the screens show activity for some compounds but the screener has no interest in publishing that because the HTS screens revealed other compounds with higher activity. The provider might be interested in including the results in a chemistry paper and therefore needs the agreement of the screener.
No, the service is free of charge.
Shipping
No, the service is free of charge.
The costs for shipping is covered by the Molecule Archive.
We can equip providing chemists with labeled and tared vials, so called X-Vials. Compounds for screening partners will be provided in singe tubes, 96- or 384-well plates, either via dry ice or where the DMSO was evaporated. The formatting of the well plates can be done according to your need so that you can feel free to dilute to any concentration needed for your assays.
Confidentiality
With the MTA, your compound structure will be legally protected and we keep the structures confidential. The generated work results are also secured via the MTA.
Yes. We will provide you with a standard MTA that has been generated by the KIT Legal Department in cooperation with Legal Departments of other universities. It has also been approved and signed by more than two dozen institutions.
Intellectual Property
The MTA arranges the rights of the screener and provider. The Compound Platform has no rights in the provided compounds or their biological results. The IP of the compound is yours and the IP of the screening result belongs to the screener. If there is any activity, then it is recommended to publish those results together (for important results) or without the partner (but with the agreement of the screener or provider who is not participating). The latter model appears e.g. if the results of the screens show activity for some compounds but the screener has no interest in publishing that because the HTS screens revealed other compounds with higher activity. The provider might be interested in including the results in a chemistry paper and therefore needs the agreement of the screener.