DiscoveRx Enters into Custom Labeling and Profiling Services for Kinases and Proteases

DiscoveRx Corporation, an established provider of HitHunter™ assays, today announced the launch of a custom labeling and profiling service for kinases and proteases. These services are yet another major step in their strategy to provide broader access to DiscoveRx's proprietary technology platform, Enzyme Fragment Complementation (EFC). The technology, marketed as the HitHunter™ line of products, has already been widely utilized by drug discovery researchers and well established as a high quality screening approach.

DiscoveRx will focus on creating custom labeling and assay development solutions for drug development customers, offering companies a strategic outsourcing option for kinase and protease assays that will dramatically increase the pace of drug discovery. Services include labeling of biomolecules with their ß-galactosidase Enzyme Donor (ED) tag for unactive and active kinase screening as well as synthesizing protease substrates with ED tags to enable chemiluminescent assays for new protease targets

EFC assays are simple, homogeneous, non-radioactive assays that have been adopted in 384, 1536 and 3456 formats. DiscoveRx offers a series of novel assays for detecting second messengers, kinases and proteases. Exquisite assay sensitivity coupled to robust Z' factor and signal to background ratios make them the assays of choice for HTS. Amongst the technology portfolio, kinase binding assays have attracted wide attention since these unique assay formats allow customers to screen against active and/or unactive kinases.

"The drug discovery community has been requesting broader access to our tools and technology, and by providing them access to customized services we will enable them to screen against a wider variety of kinase or protease targets. With unactive kinases being increasingly important in drug discovery, it is critical to have a technology that allows one to rapidly develop quality assays" stated Dr. Pyare Khanna, CEO of DiscoveRx. "This service allows one to consider earlier intractable targets due to technology limitations and bring them forward in HTS campaigns".