FREMONT, Calif.—DiscoveRx Corp., which thus far has been known primarily for being the provider of the off-the-shelf HitHunter assays, has made things personal—or at least personalized—by launching custom labeling and profiling services.
The new services—custom labeling has been underway since spring and profiling is set to begin in late July or August—are focused on kinases and proteases. DiscoveRx considers this effort to be a "major step" in its goal of giving wider access to its technology platform, enzyme fragment complementation, which forms the core of the HitHunter products used in drug discovery and screening.
"We have been known for providing out-of-the-box assay kits and tools," notes Sailaja Kuchibhatla, senior VP, business development for DiscoveRx. "Now drug discovery researchers and others can make custom assays of their choice and specify what they want. They can screen kinases they might not have been able to before and they can enjoy more specific formats for protease substrates."
Services include labeling of biomolecules with their beta-galactosidase enzyme donor (ED) tag for unactive and active kinase screening as well as synthesizing protease substrates with ED tags to enable chemiluminescent assays for new protease targets.
"The drug discovery community has been requesting broader access to our tools and technology, and by providing them access to customized services, we will enable them to screen against a wider variety of kinase or protease targets," says Dr. Pyare Khanna, CEO of DiscoveRx.
Of particular interest to drug discovery researchers should be kinase binding assays, which Kuchibhatla says allow screening against active or unactive kinases. "We see a lot of traction in the marketplace from these assays."
