Metrion Biosciences and Assay.Works Collaborate to Enhance Ion Channel Drug Discovery Services

Metrion Biosciences Limited (Metrion), the specialist ion channel CRO and drug discovery company, and Assay.Works GmbH (Assay.Works), experts in assay development and High Throughput Screening (HTS) services, today announced a collaboration that will significantly expand the companies’ range of ion channel drug discovery services.

The agreement gives Metrion access to Assay.Works extensive knowledge of HTS and assay validation technologies, including 384 well format screening and compound handling facilities, a library of 74,000 small molecules and a catalogue of ‘assay.ready’ cell lines for use in primary screening and selectivity assays.

Assay.Works clients will in turn be able to access Metrion’s extensive ion channel target know-how, electrophysiology based assay services, CiPA compliant cardiac safety profiling, and expanding range of phenotypic and translational assays in the cardiac and neuroscience fields.

HTS approaches to drug discovery can be valuable when novel starting points for chemistry are not readily available or when a rapid screen of a knowledge-based selection of compounds is required. Combining HTS with high quality compound libraries facilitates the identification of unique and tractable starting points for drug discovery programmes. Plate-based selectivity assays are also useful adjuncts to electrophysiology-based profiling, and can be added where appropriate in the screening cascade.

Dr Andrew Southan, Head of Commercial Operations at Metrion Biosciences said: “We look forward to working with the Assay.Works team, who share Metrion’s collaborative approach to client programmes. Providing access to Assay.Works’ outstanding expertise in plate-based assay development and optimization, this partnership enables Metrion to offer clients ion channel drug discovery programmes starting at the HTS stage.”

Dr Ralf Schwandner, Founder and CEO, Assay.Works, commented: “We are excited to partner with the exceptional team of scientists at Metrion Biosciences. Having worked on multiple ion channel programs, we understand the challenge of generating meaningful and reproducible results at a reasonable throughput for this important drug target class. Accessing Metrion Biosciences' expertise in ion channel research and electrophysiology will allow us to offer our clients a broad range of assay services for ion channel drug discovery.”