Research Alliance for Protein Crystallization

The formation of a research collaboration has been announced by Syrrx, Inc. (San Diego, CA, USA) and Roche (Basel, Switzerland) for high- throughput protein crystallization of select undisclosed protein structures.

The alliance will leverage the expertise Syrrx has developed in high-throughput microcrystallization of proteins for the determination of protein structures in multiple therapeutic areas. Roche will apply these structures to its rational drug development efforts. Financial terms include an advance technology access fee to Syrrx and a combination of milestone payments, success payments, and license fees by Roche upon the achievement of agreed-on goals.

The Syrrx technology uses novel, proprietary tools to bypass bottlenecks in the protein structure determination process. Deployed in an automated environment, the technology enables protein structures to be determined more reliably and economically than thought possible, says Syrrx. The company has proteomic and drug discovery collaborations with a number of other companies, including Pharmacia Corp., Celera Genomics, and Cubist Pharmaceuticals.

"The state-of-the-art technology that Syrrx has developed complements our in-house technology and provides substantial strengthening to our overall capability in drug discovery,” said David Brown, global head of discovery research at Roche.




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