Celera and Syrrx Announce Structural Proteomics Collaboration
ROCKVILLE, Md. & SAN DIEGO--(BW HealthWire)--Dec. 12, 2001--Celera Genomics (NYSE:CRA - news), an Applera Corporation business, and privately-held Syrrx, Inc., of San Diego, CA, today announced the formation of a research collaboration to accelerate the discovery of novel small molecule drugs. Syrrx will apply its high-throughput technology platform to determine the three-dimensional structures of proteins identified by Celera as potential drug targets. Structural information about these protein targets is expected to complement the work done by Celera's South San Francisco structural biology group, which has determined and published numerous, important protein structures over the past 10 years. This structural information will potentially result in the more efficient discovery of small molecule drugs to treat human diseases. Celera will make a series of R&D payments to Syrrx in connection with the collaboration. The specific financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Celera's internal target discovery group in Rockville uses high-throughput mass spectrometry to compare proteins in normal and diseased cells to identify drug targets. Celera then uses other high-throughput technologies to determine which of these proteins are optimal drug targets. Celera's South San Francisco group then uses structural biology, medicinal chemistry, and screening to design small molecule drugs capable of selectively inhibiting these proteins. Because knowing the ``shape'' of protein drug targets makes drug design more efficient, high-throughput structural information may make Celera's drug discovery efforts more cost-effective and rapid.
The Syrrx ``gene to structure'' technology platform uses novel, proprietary tools that bypass historical bottlenecks in the classical protein structure determination process. Deployed in a streamlined, factory-like environment, Syrrx's platform enables the determination of protein structures more reliably and economically than previously thought possible.
``As a leader in the structural proteomics field, Syrrx is an excellent collaborator to handle the potentially large number of divergent drug targets identified by Celera,'' said Michael C. Venuti, PhD, Senior Vice President, Research and General Manager of Celera South San Francisco. ``Celera may nominate numerous and diverse candidate drug targets in a given year, and we now have access to one of the most advanced industrial processes for structure determination available to enhance our already strong internal commitment to structure-based drug discovery.''
``We are pleased to be working with Celera to provide high-throughput structure determination technology to enable drug discovery,'' said Wendell Wierenga, PhD, CEO of Syrrx. ``We believe that our rational drug discovery expertise and high-throughput structure determination technologies will aid in the efficient conversion of Celera's knowledge of the Human Genome sequence into a series of medical breakthroughs.''
Syrrx, Inc. (www.syrrx.com) is a science and technology-driven company committed to redefining the way medicine is discovered. Syrrx has a five-year technology development alliance with the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation, a three-year antibiotic discovery alliance with Cubist Pharmaceuticals, and has recently acquired certain small molecule assets from Onyx Pharmaceuticals for the development of medicines to fight cancer and inflammation. Based in San Diego, the company is the technology leader in the field of structural proteomics, the process of generating protein structures from genetic information. Syrrx leverages high-throughput structure determination with computational methods to discover new drugs. This process enables a unique ``gene to drug'' platform based on the ability to perform high-throughput rational drug discovery... |
