Nanostream Launches Services Organization to Reduce Assay Development Time in Early Drug Discovery

Nanostream, provider of products and services to increase productivity in laboratories at pharmaceutical and biotech companies, launches a new services organization to deliver assay development services and customized solutions for screening labs. Nanostream is entering the drug discovery services market based on the growing need for pharmaceutical and biotech companies to outsource costly aspects of the drug discovery process, including assay development, optimization and qualification.

By employing a separation-based approach to developing assays, Nanostream has the capability to develop a variety of challenging assays including kinase assays, lipid-modifying enzyme assays and protease assays. The company’s technology, the Nanostream LD System, serves as a single platform for assays throughout the entire screening process -- from target characterization through lead optimization. This platform affords direct measurement of enzyme activity and rapid IC₅₀ determination.

“The pharmaceutical industry continues to explore ways to reduce costs and conserve resources, so there is a growing trend for scientists to outsource drug discovery processes. Assay development is a critical area that is typically time and labor intensive with traditional methods often yielding ambiguous results," said Stephen D. O’Connor, CEO, Nanostream. “With our separation-based assay detection platform, we can develop our customers’ most difficult assays and deliver unmatched qualitative and quantitative data results in a rapid timeframe.”

Accomplished drug discovery executive to lead world-class services team

Dr. Jonas Ekblom, Ph.D., brings an extensive background in pharmacology and drug discovery including over 15 years of combined academia and industry experience to his role as Chief Operating Officer at Nanostream. He has a strong track record in strategic R&D management and leading cross-functional expert teams. As COO, he will spearhead Nanostream’s entry into the drug discovery services market and oversee management of the organization.

“Jonas has a wealth of knowledge in biochemical assays and proven success in helping customers improve efficiencies and adopt new technologies to speed drug discovery, “ continued O’Connor. “We are excited to have him join our management team and drive our assay development services. Under his leadership, I am confident that his team will provide exceptional, highly customized services to our growing customer base.”

Dr Ekblom joins the company from Invitrogen, where he was head of the Global Program & Portfolio Management Group. Prior to his role at Invitrogen, he served as director of Drug Discovery at Sequenom. Dr. Ekblom has held senior management positions at Pharmacia, and was a cofounder of Biovitrum in 2000 and Anaborex in 2004. At Biovitrum, he was responsible for the corporate in vitro pharmacology function and was responsible for the build-up of the company's HTS facility. Dr. Ekblom has published more than 50 articles and holds a position as Associate Professor in pharmacology at Uppsala University in Sweden. Dr. Ekblom received a BS from the University of Stockholm and a Ph.D. in experimental neurology at Uppsala University.

In addition to Dr. Ekblom, Nanostream has assembled a team of world-class, experienced application scientists and customer support staff to provide comprehensive service offerings to customers. Nanostream’s services organization has deep expertise in developing a wide variety of biochemical assays. Nanostream scientists experience a low frequency of false positives, enabling them to deliver successful results.

“The combination of a powerful technology and a team of scientists with extraordinary user-skills of separation based assays can help customers dramatically reduce assay development time from months to a few days,” said Jonas Ekblom, COO, Nanostream. “I am thrilled to lead our new services business unit and enable more customers to realize the benefits of our technology.”