Cellomics and Norak Biosciences have announced the signing of a cross-license agreement enabling GPCR drug discovery methods to be operated through high-content screening
Cellomics has developed a proprietary software application for the measurement, analysis and reporting of receptor activation that includes the ability to analyse Transfluor, a fluorescence-based, universal GPCR drug discovery technology. Both companies will promote Transfluor, a G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) assay, on Cellomics' ArrayScan and KineticScan HCS platforms.
Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
"We are very pleased that Norak has recognised Cellomics's leadership position and intellectual property in HCS, and decided to work with us on this valuable HCS application.
Cellomics will continue to add powerful HCS applications for our customers through internal developments, collaborations and licensing." commented CJ Wang, vice president of business development for Cellomics. "Norak's Transfluor is a valuable approach to GPCR assays.
Enabling Norak and its pharma/biotech customers to practice Transfluor in HCS will greatly accelerate the GPCR-based drug discovery process", Dr Wang added, "With the rights granted to us by Norak, Cellomics will be able to support that process by contributing its HCS expertise directly to the market penetration of Transfluor." "Cellomics' leadership in high content screening and large installed base of HCS systems is an ideal combination with Transfluor," commented Terry Willard, vice president for corporate and business development at Norak.
"Cellomics's expertise in HCS has yielded an algorithm that unlocks the wealth of information contained within Transfluor".
Transfluor is a patented, fluorescence-based, universal GPCR drug discovery technology designed to be the most direct and accurate method for screening potential drug candidates against GPCR targets, whether known or unknown (orphan).
The GPCRs are a superfamily of proteins accounting for approximately 1% of the human genome.
As a class, GPCRs are historically the single richest receptor target for drug discovery, involved in nearly 60% of all prescription drugs on the market today.
However, the potential for GPCR-based drugs remains largely untapped because only a small number of the receptors are functionally known.
Today most major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are actively investigating GPCRs with an emphasis on uncovering the functions of unknown GPCRs (orphans) within living cells.
Cellomics' ArrayScan HCS system, widely used in the drug discovery arena today, and its new KineticScan HCS system, will enable customers to readily and effectively quantify the effects of drug candidates on GPCRs in living cells through Cellomics's proprietary Receptor Activation software module.
Transfluor arises from technology that was developed at Duke University Medical Center and licensed by Norak in 1999.
The Transfluor technology reflects the combined research into GPCR signalling pathways over several decades by Norak's scientific founders, Marc Caron, Robert Lefkowitz, and Larry Barak.
