If you are working in the field of drug discovery and want to learn how to perform pharmacophore searches to uncover new ligands, then this free, 90-minute, hands-on workshop is for you!

Pharmacophore searching is a key component in many drug discovery efforts and represents an effective mechanism of virtual screening, for example. In this approach, a pharmacophore query is created to describe features that are essential for the molecule to carry out its function. The query is then used to identify new possible lead compounds by searching a three-dimensional structural database.

In this free 90-minute hands-on CCDC Virtual Workshop, designed for complete beginners to CSD-CrossMiner, you will learn hands-on the basics of how to perform a pharmacophore search using the CCDC's software CSD-CrossMiner.

What we will cover
We will focus on performing a pharmacophore search using CSD-CrossMiner. The session will include presentations and demonstrations by CCDC expert tutors and a hands-on part for you to try the software, with the tutors available to help you and answer your questions.

You will learn:
- What CSD-CrossMiner is and how it can be used in your research.
- How to navigate the CSD-CrossMiner interface.
- How to set up an interactive pharmacophore query.
- How to perform pharmacophore searches across biologically relevant subsets of the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD) and the Protein Data Bank (PDB).
- How to analyse and interact with your results, and save them.

The workshop will be recorded and all registered participants will have access to the recording.

Software requirements
As this is an interactive workshop, you’ll need access to CSD-CrossMiner with a CSD-Discovery or CSD-Enterprise licence. Full academic licences include the software we use in this workshop. If you are unsure whether your institution already has a license, please email us at hello@ccdc.cam.ac.uk

If you do not have access to the CSD, we can provide you with a temporary licence. When you register below, please check "No" to the question: "Do you or your institution have a current full CSD licence?" and we'll get you set up.

Entry Requirements
This workshop is open to everyone who wants to learn hands-on how to use CSD-CrossMiner to perform pharmacophore searches in the CSD and PDB. This is an entry-level session, so anyone can join and no prior experience is required.

Who should attend?
- Discovery scientists.
- Research scientists investigating pharmacophore searching and drug discovery.
- PhD and post-doc level scientists in academia interested in pharmacophore searching and drug discovery.
- Industrial / commercial scientists working in pharmacophore searching and drug discovery.
- Scientists using computational methods in drug discovery.
- Educators in the biochemistry and biomedical area looking to incorporate the CSD into their teaching.

If you have any questions, feel free to email: hello@ccdc.cam.ac.uk. We’re happy to help.