Applications Invited for Drug Discovery Hackathon 2020

About the Organization:

MyGov platform is designed, developed and hosted by National Informatics Centre, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India. MyGov platform has become a key part of the policy and decision making process of the country.

Drug Discovery Hackathon 2020 (DDH2020)

Drug Discovery Hackathon 2020 (DDH2020) platform welcomes all those who wish to join the open source drug discovery Hackathon against Covid-19. DDH2020 is a joint initiative of AICTE, CSIR and supported by Office of Principal Scientific Advisor, Govt. of India, NIC and MyGov. DDH2020 vision and mission is to establish ‘Open innovation Model’ for in silico drug discovery against Covid-19 virus and will cover the various processes in drug discovery, including but not limited to, in silico screening of molecules, lead optimization and identification of drug-able non-toxic targets. The targets/tools/lead molecules identified through the process of DDH2020 will be further taken forward for synthesis followed by subsequent steps in routine drug discovery program.

DDH2020 enables competing and subsequently sharing drug discovery, information, including but not limited to, ideas, articles, papers and other literary work, data, software, applications, notes, results of experiments, patented inventions, confidential information and other materials (hereafter referred to as Information) submitted by the users.

Objective

Identification of drug candidates that are effective against coronavirus SARS-CoV-2- by employing a hackathon for in-silico drug discovery, followed up by chemical synthesis and biological testing.

Hackathon Methodology

The hackathon will have two major tracks:

• Track 1 - will primarily deal with drug design for anti-COVID-19 hit/ lead molecule generation using tools such as molecular modeling, pharmacophore optimization, molecular docking, hit/ lead optimization, etc.
• Track 2 - will deal with designing/optimizing new tools and algorithms which will have an immense impact on expediting the process of in silico drug discovery. Novel or refined tools/algorithms from Track-2 will help develop better models for predicting ADMET in silico, thus improving screening efficiency.

Eligibility Criteria

PSs will be standalone challenges with well-defined boundary conditions and expected outcomes in terms of efficiency, specificity, computational power, etc. so that competing teams are well aware of the expectations and required outcomes. The proposed Hackathon will be conducted in 3 phases of 2 months each.

• The hackathon is an international initiative and all researchers/faculty across the world are eligible to participate.
• All students studying in India and all Indian students (holding Indian Passport) studying abroad are eligible to participate in this competition.

The participation in Hackathon is free for all and will be done via a web-based portal. The individuals or teams participating in the Hackathons can select from several challenges that are already posted on the portal. This will allow a comprehensive list of specific issues that need to be addressed.

Rewards

End Point and Rewards

• The number of prizes and prize money will be separate for each phase. The amount of prize money will increase substantially from Phase-1 to Phase-2 to Phase-III. The potential SARS-CoV-2 'hit/lead' compounds identified may be tested in the lab and taken further for clinical development and by CSIR and other interested organizations.

Outcome

• The winning products/hits/tools from the hackathon will be submitted to CSIR for further laboratory testing and validation. Moreover, this entire exercise will help India establish an Open Innovation Platform for Drug Discovery using Hackathon methodology to combat Covid-19 and future epidemics.

Deadline for Phase 1: 30th September, 2020

For more information please check the Link