Citation
(2008), "Kinaxo Biotechnologies", Nutrition & Food Science, Vol. 38 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/nfs.2008.01738fab.035
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2008, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Kinaxo Biotechnologies
Article Type: Food facts June 2008 From: Nutrition & Food Science, Volume 38, Issue 6.
Kinaxo Biotechnologies GmbH announced that it was awarded a 575,000 Euro grant by the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Transport and Technology to help expand the applications for its chemical proteomics platform. Chemical proteomics 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 cell-based (“phenotypic”) drug discovery screens.
Over the past decade, many biopharmaceutical companies have built their drug research and development programs around a high throughput screening approach, testing large libraries of chemical entities over a few validated protein targets. In oncology programs, 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.
Kinaxo'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.
Kinaxo's chemical proteomics platform combines optimized affinity isolation techniques with state-of-the-art quantitative mass spectrometry capabilities. Information on a compound's cellular target interactions provides valuable insights into its mode of action, enabling more informed decisions regarding which lead compounds to progress into clinical trials.