Published November 11, 2026, via Research News
Dear WashU Research Community,
The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Innovation & Commercialization is excited to announce university-wide access to the Schrödinger software suite for WashU faculty, staff, and students. Schrödinger provides an integrated collection of computational tools supporting molecular modeling, structure-based drug design, virtual screening, medicinal chemistry, molecular dynamics, biologics research, and related areas of therapeutic discovery, with additional capabilities in modeling for materials science applications.This university-wide license will make these capabilities broadly available to investigators, trainees, and research staff across WashU.
Additional information, including the capabilities and modules available within the Schrödinger site license, can be found here.
Our goal is to help translate the extraordinary fundamental biomedical research underway on both the Danforth and Medical WashU campuses into projects with meaningful therapeutic and translational potential. By lowering barriers to sophisticated computational methods, we hope to help research teams evaluate promising discoveries, formulate and test therapeutic hypotheses, prioritize experiments, and advance projects across the often difficult “valley of death” between foundational research and real-world impact.
The software is intended to support work at many stages of development- from early investigation of biological mechanisms and potential targets through hit identification, lead optimization, and preclinical planning. Researchers from all WashU schools, departments, centers, and institutes are encouraged to explore how these resources could complement their work. Prior experience with computational drug discovery is not required; training and educational opportunities are available to help new users get started. For download, installation, and licensing instructions, contact jonathan.sheehan@wustl.edu.
We hope this shared resource will encourage new collaborations among basic scientists, computational researchers, clinicians, chemists, engineers, and translational teams throughout the university. We welcome opportunities to engage with investigators who have promising targets, mechanisms, assays, compounds, or therapeutic concepts and would like to consider how computational approaches could help move their projects forward towards eventual commercialization opportunities.
Sincerely,
Doug E. Frantz PhD
Vice Chancellor for Innovation & Chief Commercialization Officer
Professor, Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics
Washington University in St. Louis