Skip to main content

International 3Rs Prize now open for applications. £30k prize (£2k personal award) for outstanding science with demonstrable 3Rs impacts.

NC3Rs | 20 Years: Pioneering Better Science
News

New CRACK IT Solution: Comprehensive target screening by label-free cell microarray profiling to reduce animal efficacy and toxicology studies in drug discovery

CRACK IT logo

There is an unmet need for a solution that can provide comprehensive target information at the lead selection stage of small molecule drug discovery.

Interactions with proteins beyond the intended target influence the therapeutic, ADME and toxicity profile of small molecule drugs. Many off-target interactions become clear during drug discovery and development as a result of in vitro pharmacology binding and functional assays. However, due to cost this knowledge often occurs too late to capitalise on desirable properties and to avoid unwanted properties. Also some off-target interactions are not evident until after a drug has reached the market with implications for repurposing and drug safety, and wasting a considerable number of animals during development.

Working with Retrogenix and Sheffield Hallam University, Phenotox Ltd. has come up with a potential solution to this problem. Together they have developed a mass spectrometry-based profiling method that can detect the binding of label-free (unmodified) chemicals to potentially thousands of targets expressed in cell microarrays. They are now seeking partners able to provide advice and guidance, and public and proprietary compounds, to support a validation study of the platform against a large panel of targets.

For more information or to contact the Solution provider, visit the CRACK IT Solution webpage.

 

A graphic of the CRACK Solutions Phenotox. It shows the process of DNA and lipid, human cells and test molecule applied