Outsourcing Provides Optimal use of Screening Library
Pivot Park Screening Centre (PPSC) has outsourced management of its screening collection, containing over 300,000 compounds, to BioAscent Discovery which offers expertise in fi nding optimal use of compounds while preserving their quality.
BioAscent’s Newhouse facility offers a scalable and highly secure infrastructure for storage of compounds in solid and liquid formats and numerous tube and microplate types, from ambient to -20°C. Its reformatting capabilities have already transferred
233,000 aliquots of DMSO stock solutions from microplates into individual tubes, enabling PPSC to cherry pick “hit” compounds following primary ultra-high throughput screening and to confi rm and validate their activity on the target. PPSC will also be able to undertake follow up assays faster than before.
Commenting on the agreement, Mirjam Mol-Arts MD, PPSC’s CEO said: “We want to focus on our core areas of expertise, accelerating drug discovery via ultra-high throughput screening and assay development
using our leading-edge infrastructure and in-depth experience. By outsourcing the management of our collection to BioAscent we have been able to benefi t from their expertise and specialised equipment. This has helped us optimise the use of our extensive compound collection while preserving its integrity and quality, in turn enabling us to offer our customers an even more effective, fl exible and cost-effi cient service.”
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Avacta Expands Development Team in US
Biotherapeutics and reagents developer Avacta Group plc has established a commercial team in the United States of America, including the appointment of Dr Matthew Vincent as Vice President, Therapeutics Business Development based in Boston.
Matthew Vincent
Dr Vincent, a senior executive with over 25 years’ experience in multiple areas of biotechnology and life science, joined Avacta from Arisaph Pharmaceuticals where he led corporate development and therapeutic innovation strategy. Matthew was also former Director
of Business Development at Ocata Therapeutics with responsibility for all commercial affairs including the eventual acquisition of Ocata by Astellas Pharmaceuticals. Matthew’s experience also includes developing therapeutic product profi les for regenerative medicine and immuno-oncology, pricing/ reimbursement and regulatory strategy. Previously working as a lawyer and patent attorney, he has experience in worldwide patent portfolio strategy and IP diligence, regulatory affairs strategy, private and public fi nancing and patent litigation.
The New US team, which along with Dr Vincent, includes a business development executive in both San Diego and Philadelphia, joins the commercial team headed by Chief Commercial Offi cer, Dr Philippe Cotrel who was previously Commercial Director of Abcam plc and who joined Avatca in 2016. The expansion in the US brings the total in that team to eight including UK/EU business development individuals, marketing and customer support.
Dr Alastair Smith, Avacta Group Chief Executive Offi cer, commented: “The US is a very important and large market for us and in order to exploit the scale of the opportunity in North America effectively, we have decided to establish a presence on both the east and west coasts. This expansion is a strong signal of our confi dence in the technology and the growing interest from pharma, biotech and diagnostics that is being driven by the new data and applications that is rapidly emerging from our own and collaborators’ laboratories. This team’s task is to build the long term relationships that ultimately will lead to licensing deals and royalty based revenue from research and diagnostic applications and to secure Affi mer therapeutic development partnerships.
“I am delighted that we have been able to bring someone with Matt Vincent’s extensive experience and network into the Group to specifi cally address the therapeutics business development opportunity and to capitalise on our continued technical delivery of the Affi mer technology as a therapeutic platform.”
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PREP 2018 Baltimore: 8th-11th July
Professor Giorgio Carta, PREP Symposium Chairman
31st International Symposium and Exhibit on Preparative and Process Chromatography, Hyatt Regency, Baltimore Inner Harbor, MD, USA
www.PREPsymposium.org
XChem Facility Offers New Supports for Chemical Probe and Drug Development
The Structural Genomic Consortium (SGC) Oxford and Diamond Light Source (Diamond) have announced that Enamine is to become a key supplier of poised fragment and analogue libraries to its XChem facility. The Ukraine-based chemical company will offer a new generation of the hit- fi nding library, Diamond-SGC-iNEXT (DSI) Poised Library to facilitate fast and productive fragment-based lead discovery (FBLD), a common approach in academia and industry for developing new chemical probes and drug starting points (leads) from weak starting evidence, namely fragment hits.
The XChem facility for fragment screening by X-ray crystallography was set up as a joint collaboration to ensure public access to effi cient FBLD; the DSI Poised Library comprises 768 highly soluble fragments.
Professor Frank von Delft, Head of the XChem Collaboration and Principal Beamline Scientist at Diamond Light Source, explained: “The XChem facility has already helped over 60 users fi nd thousands of hits across over 80 targets. To address the subsequent challenge, that chemical elaboration is generally expensive and time consuming, we developed and published the poised approach. Poised fragments can be synthesised in one step from commercially available starting materials using robust, high-yielding reactions, so that libraries of analogues can be synthesised quickly and at a low cost. Coupled with high-throughput biophysical methods, such as
XChem screening but also NMR or SPR, this should provide a cost-effi cient approach to early-stage fragment-based lead design.”
Dr Anthony Bradley, Project Leader on Fragment Development at SGC Oxford, added: “We quickly discovered that to realise the full power of the approach, we urgently needed to address the problem of compound supply. We are thus delighted to work with Enamine for the materialisation of the DSI Poised Library, fully benefi ting from Enamine’s extensive stock of building blocks, capabilities and proven industry solutions. This puts both the primary library and follow-up analogue series within budgets and timelines of even exploratory compound discovery efforts worldwide. The SGC Oxford will be making extensive use of this offering in its many ongoing and future compound development projects.”
Michael Bossert, Head of Strategic Alliances at Enamine, commented: “The high technological degree of specialisation of Diamond and its unique XChem facility, was key to this collaboration. It is important to collaborate with high-tech companies in order to launch high-value technology-based products that aim to improve our customers R&D effi ciencies and discovery project successes.”
44910pr@reply-direct.com 44541pr@reply-direct.com Collaboration to Evaluate Peptides Targeting RA & MS Pierre Vandepapelière
Biotechnology company Imcyse SA, has partnered with Pfi zer Inc for development of an Imotope™, a specifi c modifi ed peptide, targeting rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Under the terms of the agreement, Pfi zer will provide an undisclosed amount to fund the research activities and Pfi zer has an exclusive option to negotiate a license agreement for a limited period following the research activities. Additionally, Pfi zer will perform preclinical evaluation of another of Imcyse’s Imotopes targeting multiple sclerosis (MS) to better understand the mode of action of Imcyse’s Imotope technology platform. Imcyse will have access to select technology platforms at Pfi zer as well as all research
results related to this collaboration.
“We are pleased to announce this collaboration with Pfi zer, as it further demonstrates the potential of our Imotope technology and its potential application to pharmaceutical research,” said Pierre Vandepapelière, CEO of Imcyse. “The collaboration with Pfi zer in the two fi elds of application will help us confi rm the potential for our technology in others.”
Founded in 2010, Imcyse is a spin-off from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL), Belgium.
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The PREP series of symposia is the longest running, most recognised international conference and exposition driving the fi eld of preparative and process chromatography, organised by expert scientists and engineers for the separation science practitioner. Scientists from around the world will deliver cutting edge presentations addressing the latest developments and hottest topics in all areas of preparative and process chromatography. The focus of the conference will highlight the discovery, development and production aspects covering a broad range of topics. The program will be packed with papers on biochromatography, downstream processing, QbD, monoclonal antibodies, plasmids, enzymes, vaccines, viral vectors for gene delivery, VLPs and other biopharmaceuticals, chiral molecules, SFC, fi ne chemicals, peptides, proteins, oligonucleotides, APIs, natural products, batch, multi-column and continuous SMB processes, column technology and equipment, monoliths, new and improved stationary phases, membrane chromatography, regulatory aspects and more.
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