Collaboration Promotes Use of Protein Arrays in Search for Kinase Inhibitors

An agreement has been announced for collaboration to promote the use of protein function arrays for the development of drugs acting as kinase inhibitors.

Overexpression and faulty regulation of protein kinases have been implicated in a wide variety of diseases. As a result, researchers are developing drugs designed to alter the activity of targeted kinases in areas such as cancer, inflammation, heart disease, and neurodegenerative diseases. Approximately 30% of all drug discovery efforts are currently focused on targeting protein kinases.

Towards this end, Procognia Ltd (Maidenhead, UK) has announced the initiation of a collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline (Research Triangle Park, NC, USA) to explore ways to adapt Procognia's protein function arrays to GlaxoSmithKline's drug development processes.

Under the collaboration, Procognia will supply arrays to GlaxoSmithKline containing over 300 functional human kinases. These arrays will allow researchers to profile many kinases in a single parallel experiment where previously many separate assays were required. This has many benefits including shortening of experimental time, reduction in sample volume, and improved comparability between results from different kinases.

"We are delighted to be working with an acknowledged leader in the area of kinase drug research,” said Ron Long, CEO of Procognia. "GlaxoSmithKline's scientists will provide our team with the insight to help Procognia continue to focus our product development on solutions that have direct relevance to the industry.”


Related Links:
Procognia Ltd
GlaxoSmithKline