Heptares calls on Sygnature for discovery chemistry
The Nottingham, UK based contract chemistry specialist will produce a library on novel compounds for evaluation against a range of propriety G-protein-coupled-receptors (GPCRs) targets in Heptares’ drug development programme.
Sygnature CEO Simon Hirst said: “We are delighted that Heptares has chosen to collaborate with Sygnature on this programme,” adding that the contract further demonstrates his firm’s growing reputation in the chemistry services industry.
Dr Hirst said that Sygnature’s business has grown considerably over the last five years and suggested that the firm’s ability to provide drug industry customers with flexible resources without the overheads of in house R&D has been a key driver.
Miles Congreve, head of chemistry at Heptares, agreed, adding that: “Sygnature is becoming well-known and respected within the pharmaceutical industry for its high-quality medicinal and synthetic chemistry driven services.
“Sygnature was therefore our choice as a trusted partner to leverage our own internal drug discovery capabilities,” continued Dr Congreve explained that Sygnature will work on Heptares’ core drug development programme.
Functional GPCRs
Heptares, which is also based in the UK, is focused on the development of drugs that target GPCRs engineered using its StaR technology platform.
While GPCRs are widely recognised as one of the most important families of therapeutic targets for drug research, work on them is problematic because they lose structural when removed from cellular membranes.
The StaR platform was developed to resolve this issue by providing a means of producing stabilised GPCRs that retain their structure, and hence functionality as drug targets, when assed in screening studies.
Heptares' approach is to introduce point mutations into the genes that encode the GPCR in question until, after multiple iterations, the molecule’s stability is such that it can be easily manipulated.
