• The first technology transfer agreement involving the new Leonardo supercomputer (4th in the world in terms of power) was signed today at the Bologna Technopole between Cineca and Dompé farmaceutici
  

• The collaboration already foresees 1 million hours of calculation which will be used to accelerate research against pandemics and the development of new drugs for diseases with a high need for treatment through the Exscalate platform of Dompé farmaceutici.
  

• A new Tier 1 Data Center will be created at the Federico II University of Naples where Dompé already has the headquarters of its EXSCALATE laboratory, as part of the Cineca National HPC Center project.

Bologna, 24 November 2022 – Dompé farmaceutici is the first private company to sign an agreement for the use of the computing resources of the Leonardo supercomputer [1] , the 4th most powerful in the world, inaugurated today at the Bologna Technopole and managed by Cinema Consortium. The Milanese company, already a user of its predecessor, Marconi100 (today 24th in the world), will use the power of the new machine to accelerate the development of new drugs and the early response to pandemics through its proprietary Exscalate platform which combines artificial intelligence and supercalculation. Exscalate has already been allocated 1 million computation hours which places it as the most advanced tool globally for supporting computational chemistry in biopharmaceuticals.

The agreement also paves the way for CINECA to build a new Tier 1 Data Center in Naples where Dompé has located the headquarters of the Exscalate development center. The new center is part of the national supercomputing development strategies under the National Center for High Performance Computing, Big Data and Quantum Computing project.

“Today, the repercussions of supercalculation applications are much closer to our lives than we think - observed Francesco Ubertini, President of Cineca -Leonardo's contribution, lifeblood for the scientific community, in fact, is equally precious and decisive for the industrial system and for society. Leonardo has been designed and configured both to support researchers in traditional research fields and to face new challenges. Among these, accelerating research against pandemics and developing new drugs, which is the main objective of the agreement signed on the sidelines of the inauguration of Leonardo with Dompé farmaceutici. The agreement also paves the way for the construction of a new Tier 1 Data Center in Naples, helping to fulfill the national strategies for the development of supercomputing within the initiatives of the National Center for High Performance Computing, Big Data and Quantum Computing ”.

The Exscalate platform is at the heart of Dompé's research strategy for both international initiatives and industrial projects. The Exscalate4Cov initiative, in which Dompé is the leader of a rapid response project to Covid-19 with 33 partners from seven European countries, has identified a molecule for the treatment of mild and moderate cases of the disease and is one of the experiences indicated as a model of public-private collaboration in digital by the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von Der Leyen [2] . At an industrial level, Exscalate recently allowed the US start-up Aramis Biosciences to reach clinical trials in humans in just 14 months. The platform is also used by British startup Engitixin solid tumor research.

“ Today's agreement stems from years of collaboration with Cineca in the development of Exscalate – explained Marcello Allegretti, Chief Scientific Officer of Dompé farmaceutici – In particular, the support of the European Commission and the vision of the Director General of DG CNECT Roberto Viola, they have allowed us to access not only computing resources, but also data and digital expertise that are now an integral part of biopharmaceutical research ”.

In the Dompé laboratories in Naples, the Exscalate team led by Andrea R. Beccari will exploit the power of Leonardo to reduce the analysis times of large libraries of molecules by hundreds of times, allowing faster and more effective responses to future pandemic risks and cutting by 1,000 times (micro to milliseconds) the simulation times of how a molecule interacts with biological tissue. But above all, the use of Leonardo paves the way for the rapid creation of millions of "synthetic" molecules which, since they are completely digital, can be tested on the computer even before being produced in the laboratory, cutting the development times and costs of new drugs.

“ The public-private partnership is a fundamental and indispensable condition for promoting the development of biomedical research, to the benefit of everyone, from the patient to the National Health Service, to pharmaceutical companies as bearers of value for well-being and health protection – underlined Sergio Dompé, Executive Chairman of Dompé farmaceutici - Today, high-performance computing, Artificial Intelligence and Data technologies are by now one of the fundamental R&D tools – as Nobel Prize winner Arieh Warshel, scientific advisor of Exscalate, recently underlined, but they will soon become the instrument principal. As a country we must pay attention and continue to invest in this direction ”.

[1] https://leonardo-supercomputer.cineca.eu/it/leonardo-4-nella-top500-list/

[2] https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_890