Streamlining drug discovery

BISHOP’S STORTFORD & CAMBRIDGE, U.K.—Domainex Ltd., a small-molecule therapeutics company that provides integrated drug research services to global pharmaceutical, biotechnology and academic partners, has signed a multiyear agreement with Dotmatics, a leading provider of scientific informatics solutions and services to the life-sciences industry, to streamline Domainex’s integrated drug discovery services.

The fully integrated systems will include data reporting and visualization, reproduction of assay workflows, electronic laboratory notebook (ELN) and registration tools. Domainex—which offers multiparameter medicinal chemistry optimization of hits and leads for global pharmaceutical, biotechnology and academic partners—will leverage Dotmatics’ software to analyze and share valuable scientific data across the full range of its offerings, from protein expression through to preclinical candidate delivery.

Established in 2001 as a spin-out from University College London, Birkbeck College and the Institute of Cancer Research, Cambridge-based Domainex’s disease target selection and candidate nomination services include recombinant protein expression and use of a proprietary technology platform—Combinatorial Domain Hunting—to identify soluble protein fragments for structural biology and assay development. Hit finding activities comprise assay development and screening using Domainex’s BioassayBuilder, FragmentBuilder and LeadBuilder platforms.

In addition to that general work, Domainex has expanded its partnership with Imperial College London to discover novel therapies that reduce heart muscle damage during heart attacks with research related to a drug that inhibits the enzyme MAP4K4, which plays a key role in triggering cell death following a heart attack.

Dotmatics’ enterprise solutions are flexible, scalable and configurable, providing effective scientific information management across entire organizations, from discovery research to development and early manufacturing. Dotmatics provides database management for chemistry and biologics, ELNs, chemical and biological registration, screening data management, structure-activity relationship analysis, reporting and visualization. Available for local or cloud deployment, these solutions are supported on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. The Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre has integrated Dotmatics Elemental JavaScript sketcher into the Cambridge Structural Database, a repository of experimentally determined organic and metal-organic crystal structures used by pharmaceutical, biotech, materials research companies and academic institutions worldwide.

As part of the Domainex-Dotmatics agreement, Domainex will use bioinformatics solutions from the Dotmatics 5.0 suite, including Browser, Studies, Vortex, Studies Notebook, Register, Inventory, Cascade, Elemental and Biologics Inventory. This state-of-the-art software will reportedly enable seamless interconnectivity of biological and chemical competences, to minimize cycle timelines and providing its clients with a more efficient service.

According to Tom Mander, Domainex's chief operating officer, the Dotmatics software platform “will directly benefit our clients by creating a visual interface capturing data and enabling project decision making in a just-in-time manner.” He added, “It brings together the innovative and high-quality protein expression, hit generation and medicinal chemistry services we offer. This agreement is a natural development of our collaborative working relationships, and we are confident that our two companies will continue to work together in a very positive way for the benefit of our clients.”

Trevor Perrior, chief scientific officer at Domainex, added, “Dotmatics software is a unique and comprehensive fit with our biology and chemistry requirements, including the reproduction of assay workflows, data reporting and visualization and the adoption of electronic lab notebooks. We have a history of successfully working with Dotmatics. Its ability to integrate seamlessly with our existing systems while providing in-depth, scientifically advanced software made it the clear choice.”

“This agreement is a natural progression of our working relationship, and we are confident that our two companies will continue on a very positive path,” agreed Dotmatics’ CEO Dr. Steve Gallagher. “Our software will help advance Domainex’s innovate work in COPD drug research, epigenetics research, medicinal and computational chemistry services, protein expression and cell based and biochemical assay development offerings.”