interesting stuff cut & pasted from website -
cytos.com
Cytos’ integrated technology platform comprising protein drug discovery and development has been developed within the company’s own R&D program in the past few years. It enables us to feed our own product pipeline as well as to provide our clients and collaborators with access to detailed knowledge and technological leadership in Protein Discovery, Immunotherapeutics & Vaccines, Gene Expression & Delivery, and Product Development.
2. As a young spin-off company from the ETH (Federal Institute of Technology) in Zurich we do foster intensive research collaborations all over the world. This worldwide network with prestigious government laboratories and research institutions provides our clients and collaborators with access to distinguished knowledge in many technological and medical areas.
3. Being the first business unit of Cytos, the process development unit combines cutting edge science in product research and innovative process technology. Cytos relies on a proven track record with sold production processes for four generic proteins, from which one is already in clinical phase III.
4. Cytos’ profitable business strategy is based on the supply of services to the pharmaceutical industry.
5. A broad enabling technology allows Cytos to pursue multiple strategic alliances while remaining independent and building a strong product pipeline for sustained future growth.
A current limitation in the drug development process is the inability to routinely produce toxic drug targets for HTS and structure analysis. To address this problem, Cytos has created a unique temperature-inducible expression system, which allows the construction of stably transfected cell lines for the production of highly toxic proteins. Whereas the system is completely tight at 37°C, high level protein expression is induced by lowering the ambient temperature below 35°C. The system routinely allows for at least 10,000 fold induction of protein expression in stably transfected cell lines (mixed populations) and the rapid establishment of production processes for toxic drug targets such as kinases, seven transmembrane receptors or ion channels.
A second application approach of the system is currently being developed. As the system allows control over the protein delivery process both in terms of amounts and timing it may well be applied in regulated protein therapy.
Large-scale manufacturing of biologics typically requires advanced and costly production technology. Moreover, the shorter life cycles of products make it a strategic imperative to develop highly efficient processes before the launch and to improve them aggressively thereafter.
Cytos’ organizational capabilities support fast, efficient, and effective process development. With its novel capabilities, the company is able to quickly introduce new products with high yields and controlled processes which lead to a significant competitive advantage. And Cytos relies on a proven track record with sold production processes for four generic proteins, from which one is already in clinical phase III.
Cytos develops a new class of therapeutic products that engage the immune system in causally curing chronic diseases. Monoclonal antibodies are today part of the standard arsenal of therapeutic products. These molecules are used to passively immunize a patient against a disease target. This passive nature of immunization requires frequent injections, causes allotype specific adverse reactions, and is very inconvenient to cope with the chronic nature of various diseases. Cytos strategy is to advance the field of immunization from the passive nature of monoclonal antibodies to an active immunotherapy, where the patient’s immune system is programmed to produce the therapeutic agent. Successful strategies must complement the patient’s existing immune response without causing immune overreaction or toxicity. Cytos’ approach holds promise as a unique therapeutic concept based on novel insights into the immune system’s mode of action.
The immune system distinguishes between self and non-self by assessing order and repetitiveness of antigens. By analogy with this natural concept Cytos’ technology is based on a noninfectious protein scaffold, which is decorated with highly repetitive full-length antigens known to induce a strong immune response. The resulting product may be used to either boost the immune response against pathogens or to induce a selective and specific immune response against disease-promoting or disease-associated self-proteins.
This unique feature of breaking self-tolerance should allow to replace the continuous application of monoclonal antibodies or small molecule drugs in chronic diseases such as arthritis or cancer and thus opens the path to the post-monoclonal era.
For further information on Cytos’ Immunotherapeutics and Vaccine technology, please download the following PDF document:
* ImmVacc0106.pdf (a detailed description of our Immunotherapeutics & Vaccine technology)
* MAI.pdf (an article published in Modern Aspects in Immunology)
Please see below a selection of articles by Cytos members, which explain the rationale of our Immunotherapeutics & Vaccine technology in more detail
* Vaccine 19, 877, 2000
* Current Opinion in Immunology 11, 332, 1999
* PNAS 95, 9477, 1998
* Science 276, 2024, 1997
* Annual Review in Immunology 15, 235, 1997
* Immunology Today 17, 553, 1996 (no abstract available)
Issued patents: U.S. Patent No. 6,197,502
This patent offers broad protection for Cytos' key technology for protein discovery and characterization. The technology is an integrated system for the functional expression of all proteins from a given cell or tissue and subsequent high throughput screening of these proteins for a desired function. This may include a certain binding specificity, an enzymatic activity, a structural property or the induction of a complex biological response. Most proteins found in living cells can be conveniently monitored by measuring these properties.
Issued patents: US Patent No. 5,811,299
This patent controls a leading technology for elimination of animal serum in mammalian cell culture processes. By genetic engineering of mammalian cells, a cell line was produced which grows rapidly in a completely defined protein-free cell culture medium. The cells are engineered to express a cell-cycle regulatory protein called Cyclin E. Moreover, overexpression of Cyclin E enables some cell lines to grow in suspension.
Filed patents
Cytos has filed 11 patent applications to gain wide protection to its technology and product portfolio.
In-licensed patents
To supplement its existing technology portfolio, Cytos has in-licensed 4 patents.
the-scientist.com
Cytos Biotechnology's temperature-dependent expression system tightens gene regulation
...maximum expression occurs at 30ºC, and induction is more than 10,000-fold--a level not possible in any other commercially available expression system. The company has demonstrated stable transfection of a variety of cell lines, including BHK, CHO-K1, C2C12, and COS-7, to produce cytotoxic proteins.1 The system is reinducible (i.e., induction can be terminated and restarted several times), but unlike other reinducible systems, it demonstrates a complete lack of expression in the noninduced state (at 37ºC).... |
