US patent granted for method to detect protein translocations in cells using luminophores such as green fluorescent protein fused to the target protein
BioImage has announced that it had been granted US 6,518,021, a patent covering the detection of protein translocation in cells using luminophores, such as green fluorescent protein (GFP), fused to the target protein.
Redistribution - the name coined by the company to describe its technology that monitors protein translocation in real time in living cells - is at the heart of the company's drug discovery programs.
BioImage has pioneered the concept of modulating protein translocation as a new mode of action for disease therapy.
Patrik Dahl‚n, CEO of BioImage, said, "This patent extends our IP portfolio in the USA and further strengthens our internal discovery programmes and external partnerships.
It also recognises BioImage's leadership in an exciting growth area - high throughput, high content screening of living cells.
Every pharmaceutical and drug discovery company exploring protein translocation assays will need access to our technology and IP.
We look forward to continuing our own in-house discovery programmes and to working with a growing number of strategic commercial partners.
High content screening is an increasingly interesting area in which technologies and assays, such as those developed by BioImage, provide researchers with cost effective methods for characterising lead compounds in more relevant, cell-based assays.
Our ability to run these assays in high throughput mode also allows us to run them routinely as primary screens." Using Redistribution, BioImage has screened for and identified small drug-like molecules that act as modulators of protein translocation.
These drug-like molecules work through new modes of action and show early promise as therapies in inflammation and cancer.
The company plans to progress these compounds through lead optimisation and invivo studies later in the year.
In addition to using Redistribution for its own in-house discovery programmes, the company believes that the technology will be more broadly used as a vital drug discovery tool.
In particular, the technology is applicable to pathway screening, where specific intracellular signaling pathways are screened for small molecule interactors upstream from the target in the process of profiling lead compounds.
Through its technology access partnerships, BioImage is looking for further licensees to ensure access to the technology and has already made its Redistribution technology available under license to companies in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry.
