Kinaxo awarded grant to expand applications for its chemical proteomics platform
Kinaxo Biotechnologies, of Martinsried in Germany, has been awarded a Euro 575,000 grant by the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Transport and Technology to help expand the applications for its chemical proteomics platform, which .enables a comprehensive assessment of the native cellular proteome interactions and selectivity of small molecule drug candidates.
Kinaxo Biotechnologies, of Martinsried in Germany, has been awarded a Euro 575,000 grant by the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Transport and Technology to help expand the applications for its chemical proteomics platform, which .enables a comprehensive assessment of the native cellular proteome interactions and selectivity of small molecule drug candidates.
Kinaxo will use the funding to demonstrate how its platform can be employed to identify the native protein targets of compounds found in phenotypic drug discovery screens.
In oncology programmes, the ability of human cancers to 'mutate' and consequently overcome single target inhibition strategies means many drug development companies are taking a 'phenotypic' approach by first screening compounds for a particular desired cellular response prior to honing in on the specific target(s).
Once a promising cellular response is observed, the targets or proteins that interact with the compound must then be identified. Defining the native cellular environment mode of action of promising new compounds is invaluable towards the further development of a therapeutic strategy. However to date this has proved to be a very challenging task, according to Kinaxo.
The company's Cellular Target Profiling technology will help support phenotypic-based drug discovery not only through the identification of the compound target(s) but also by defining the affinities of these interactions. This is achieved by direct interrogation of the entire cellular proteome representing a particular disease model.
Kinaxo's Cellular Target Profiling technology was originally developed at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany.
"This funding will allow us to significantly expand the scope and utility of our chemical proteomics capability, helping to demonstrate further valuable applications for broad adoption in the field of small molecule drug development," said Dr Andreas Jenne, Kinaxo's ceo.