Agreement combines ubiquitin focused biology expertise with proprietary chemistry platform to identify small molecule libraries that target the ubiquitin system.
Dundee, UK, 3rd June 2015: Ubiquigent Limited, a company specialising in ubiquitin cell-signalling system drug discovery capabilities and services, and Cyclofluidic Limited, a leading medicinal chemistry company based on an innovative integrated discovery technology platform, announced today they have entered into an agreement to develop novel targeted libraries that specifically target the ubiquitin system.
Under the terms of the agreement, Ubiquigent and the Cyclofluidic will design, develop and characterise small molecule compound libraries by combining their two leading approaches:
Ubiquigent - Ubiquigent provides access to a full suite of drug discovery services and high integrity reagents and kits to help investigators unravel the complexity of, and pursue, new therapeutic target opportunities across the ubiquitin system. Ubiquigent designs HTS-ready assays and undertakes complex drug discovery services on targets such as the ubiquitin ligases (E3s), ubiquitin deconjugating enzymes (DUBs, DUBprofiler™), and other system targets to support research in this rapidly emerging field.
**Cyclofluidic – The CyclOps™ platform integrates flow chemistry, purification, screening and drug design utilising machine learning algorithms to allow drug lead molecules to be assayed minutes, rather than weeks, after they are designed. The team has shown that use of the platform reduces timelines for hit to lead optimisation by 50%, from a year to less than 6 months, allowing molecules to progress into pre-clinical studies faster.
The output of the collaboration will be a valuable source of novel targeted libraries that the companies will jointly commercialise. These libraries will provide new medicinal chemistry opportunities to support the identification of potent and selective compounds that target key members of this family of new drug targets, which have been implicated across multiple therapeutic areas including: cancer, cardiovascular and metabolic, neurological and musculoskeletal, and infection and immunity.
Commenting on the collaboration, Dr. Jason Brown, Managing Director of Ubiquigent, said: “We are very pleased to be entering into this relationship with Cyclofluidic as we believe that our combined approach will uncover many exciting opportunities in this rapidly developing field. This latest collaboration further supports Ubiquigent's goal of being the first, ubiquitin system-focused, fully integrated provider of biology, assays, small molecule libraries and compound profiling services.”
Dr. Dave Parry, Chief Operating Officer of Cyclofluidic, added: “We are excited by the opportunity to demonstrate the advantages of our CyclOps™ platform in accelerating discovery to this rapidly evolving area of biology which has been made possible through access to Ubiquigent's leading expertise in the field.”
Contacts
Ubiquigent Ltd**Cyclofluidic Ltd**Jason MundinDave ParryCommercial DirectorChief Operating OfficerE-mail: jason.mundin@ubiquigent.comE-mail: info@cyclofluidic.co.ukPhone: +44 (0) 7976 000683Phone: +44 (0) 7941 096981
About Ubiquigent (www.ubiquigent.com)
Ubiquigent Limited specialises in enabling ubiquitin cell-signalling system drug discovery. It is a provider of drug discovery assay development and compound profiling services, and a specialist supplier of high quality reagents and kits to the commercial and academic life science research communities. The company has established its scientific and business credentials both with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies pursuing ubiquitin system-focused drug discovery as well as academic researchers undertaking fundamental scientific discovery.
Ubiquigent benefits from high calibre backing including from the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) and the University of Dundee. The Company is located in a state-of-the-art facility adjacent to the MRC Protein Phosphorylation and Ubiquitylation Unit (founded by Professor Sir Philip Cohen) at the University of Dundee. In addition to Ubiquigent's own facilities and capabilities, such proximity provides ready access to a significant range of additional scientific expertise and know-how.
About Cyclofluidic (www.cyclofluidic.co.uk)
Cyclofluidic is a platform technology company located in Welwyn Garden City UK offering innovative collaborations in early drug discovery including hit to lead optimisation, tool compound discovery and patent landscape exploration. Cyclofluidic's unique capabilities in early stage small molecule discovery provides its collaborators with the opportunity to rapidly advance their early stage drug discovery programs. Cyclofluidic was founded in 2008 with investment from pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and UCB alongside support from Innovate UK (www.innovateuk.org).
About the Ubiquitin System
The ubiquitin system offers many new drug discovery target opportunities across multiple therapeutic areas including: cancer, cardiovascular and metabolic, neurological and musculoskeletal, and infection and immunity. Involving the modification of proteins through the attachment of the protein ubiquitin, or ubiquitin-like proteins (Ubls), ubiquitylation and related Ubl modifications are key to the control of cellular protein homeostasis as well as signalling, akin to the critical role played by phosphorylation (approximately 30% of commercial drug discovery programmes target phosphorylation enzymes), and holds similar potential for clinical utility.