Sygnature Discovery invests £3.75 million in Azenta storage system
High-fidelity hit finding is a critical initiation step in any successful drug discovery project and is increasingly important as new drug targets become harder to prosecute. The seamless integration of HTS and compound management is important in identifying hits with high precision and confidence.
A hit is a compound that has the desired activity in a compound screen. This activity should be confirmed upon retesting. The main motive is to identify molecules that interact with the drug target.
Colin Sambrook Smith, director of computational sciences and informatics at Sygnature Discovery said: “We are delighted to see our new state-of-the-art Compound Management lab come on stream.
“This significant financial investment underscores Sygnature's commitment to supporting the best science and recognizing the importance of compound quality in almost every aspect of what we do for customers. We look forward to storing both project and HTS compounds in a fully automated manner and in the best conditions.”
In parallel to improving the integrity of the overall compound to screening data process, Sygnature aims to increase the hit-finding success for new and increasingly less druggable targets by offering a tailored integration of hit-finding technologies from multimodal HTS diversity screens, fragment-based biophysics screening, and newly acquired affinity-selection mass spectrometry.
Increased HTS screening capacity
The new Azenta compound management system, coupled with an increased HTS screening capacity, also enables the automated management and screening of compounds from various sources under one roof.
Sygnature can now store over 2 million compounds under optimal conditions for stability, and compound samples are tracked automatically via Titian Mosaic from the storage well to the final HTS assay data point. This complete end-to-end solution meets the current and future needs of high-quality HTS hit finding.
This significant investment forms part of the company’s longer-term vision for leading the drug discovery market in hit-finding capabilities.
Sygnature Discovery says it is a world-leading integrated drug discovery CRO based in the UK and Canada with its headquarters in Nottingham and additional sites in Alderley Park, Macclesfield, Glasgow, Montreal, and Quebec City.
Its staff of over 1,000, which includes 900 scientists, partners with global pharma, biotech, and NFP organizations. Since 2004, Sygnature Discovery has delivered over 40 novel pre-clinical and 22 clinical compounds, with its scientists named on over 170 patents. Therapeutic areas of expertise include oncology, inflammation and immunology, neuroscience, metabolic diseases, infectious diseases and fibrotic diseases.
