Contract Research Facility for Protein Studies

A new contract research facility has been launched by Sidec Technologies AB (Stockholm, Sweden), called Sidec Molecular Imaging. The facility is designed to speed up the decision-making process for pharmaceutical developers who need to determine the conformation of individual proteins and protein complexes in solution or in cryo-sections.

Sidec has developed new technology called Sidec Electron Tomography (SET), which allows individual macromolecules to be visualized and studied in 3-D, to a resolution of 2 nm. The company says its technology offers the ability to visualize binding domains, determine that binding occurs, and to see where and how binding occurs. It also enables protein study under different experimental conditions. The company's technical platform is derived from research at the Karolinska Institute (Stockholm, Sweden), and the technology is based on a new reconstruction algorithm, Constrained Maximum Entropy Tomography (COMET).

One of the first companies to sign up for the Sidec's contract research is Biovitrum (Stockholm, Sweden). The company will utilize Sidec's technology to study the 3-D shape and domains of a protein complex involved in the metabolic regulatory system of the body. Biovitrum is focusing on metabolic diseases such as type II diabetes and obesity.

"A 3-D view will indeed help us to understand the arrangement of components in this protein complex, and thereby the mechanisms involved in its function,” said Martin Norin, director of structural chemistry at Biovitrum. "This type of information can aid in strategic scientific decisions targeting novel mechanisms of action.”