Ubiquigent Release: Company Awarded Innovate UK Grant To Develop Novel Compound Libraries Targeting Deubiquitylase (Dub) Enzymes

DUNDEE, Scotland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Ubiquigent Limited, a company specialising in providing ubiquitin cell-signalling system drug discovery services and research tools, announced today that it has been awarded a new grant from Innovate UK as part of its Biomedical Catalyst 2016 Feasibility Study Competition. The project, entitled “Novel chemical libraries to unlock the potential of deubiquitylase (DUB) enzyme drug discovery”, will make it easier for pharmaceutical researchers to target DUB enzymes in the search for new medicines.

“Novel chemical libraries to unlock the potential of deubiquitylase (DUB) enzyme drug discovery”

The ubiquitin system plays a key role in the regulation of the majority (if not all) cellular proteins and processes meaning that it presents a deep array of potential drug targets – currently largely untapped by the pharma industry – addressing multiple therapeutic areas. This includes many that are currently proving challenging, such as dementia and cancer, as well as a range of metabolic diseases.

Ubiquigent is a world-leading provider of biological assay services in this newly emerging space of ubiquitin-system drug discovery, where the main rate limiting factor is the availability of small molecule libraries to kick-start early drug development. With the help of this grant, Ubiquigent will develop additional, highly-targeted, small molecule libraries focussing on the DUB enzyme subfamily, thereby further unlocking their potential for targeting by the pharmaceutical industry. The grant is expected to be worth £133k over a twelve-month period, commencing in January 2017.

Ubiquigent’s Executive Chairman, Dr Mark Treherne, commented: "Following on from the launch of DUBtarget™-001, our first compound library, developed in collaboration with the Drug Discovery Unit at the University of Dundee, this timely award from Innovate UK will allow Ubiquigent to develop a series of further libraries. Our expanding DUBtarget™ portfolio will enable an increasing number of global companies to explore a richer, more diverse chemical space in their search for novel DUB enzyme inhibitors."

About Ubiquigent

Ubiquigent Limited is a specialist developer and supplier of Drug Discovery Services, high quality Research Tools and Chemistry to the life science research community, focussing on the ubiquitin, ubiquitin-like, and integrated signalling systems.

The company has established its scientific and business credentials with both academic researchers undertaking fundamental scientific discovery and pharmaceutical and biotechnology company scientists exploring the potential of ubiquitin cascade-focused drug discovery. For more information, visit www.ubiquigent.com.

Contacts

Ubiquigent Ltd
Jason Mundin
Commercial Director
E-mail: jason.mundin@ubiquigent.com
Phone: +44 (0) 7976 000683

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