CLEVELAND, Sept. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- ChanTest will feature its expanding line of ion channel services and cell lines for drug-discovery and development applications in booth 11 at the Assays and Cellular Targets conference in San Diego, September 24-26. ChanTest designed its ion channel cell lines and services to provide drug-discovery researchers the early information they need to identify the most promising target compounds and eliminate those that could ultimately cause harmful side effects. ChanTest is also working with pharmaceutical and biotech companies to help rescue shelved pharmaceutical compounds.
Dr. Arthur (Buzz) Brown, ChanTest's founder and CEO, will present a case study to conference participants entitled, "Screening Ion Channels for Safety and Efficacy," on Friday, September 26 at 11:30, as part of the conference's Ion Channel Targets track. "We are developing a library of ion channel-expressing cell lines for screening with the full range of automated patch clamp instruments and FLIPR-Tetra(r)," said Dr. Brown. "At present, 86 'books' are available and 160 will be available by June 2009. We validate each cell line for cDNA sequence, Western blot, voltage range, gating, and pharmacology. We recognize that each research program has its own unique needs and priorities, so we've designed our services and cell lines to offer the most flexibility possible. Our validated ion channels can be mixed and matched into panels according to tissue, e.g., cardiac; therapeutic area, e.g., pain; and ion channel family, e.g., TRP channels. And we draw upon our years of ion channel experience to help customers design an appropriate testing program to meet their specific scientific and budgetary goals."
ChanTest scientists were the first to prove hERG as the target for adverse cardiac events linked to non-cardiac drugs: Seldane (terfenadine), Propulsid (cisapride), and Nizoral (ketoconazole), and ChanTest pioneered the development of functional, cell-based ion channel testing as a means to predict cardiac side effects produced by non-cardiac drugs. Such testing is now a standard component of regulatory submissions prior to the approval of drugs for use in humans. ChanTest is committed to innovation, and is leading the next major advance in ion channel research and services with a $10 million program to develop the world's most extensive library or catalog of ion channels. ChanTest's expert electrophysiologists fully validate the ion channels for interrogation with functional, pharmacological, and biochemical assays.
The A/C/T Assays and Cellular Targets conference and exhibition takes place September 24-26, 2008 at the Marriott San Diego Hotel & Marina in California.
About ChanTest
The preeminent ion channel services company, ChanTest serves its drug discovery and development customers with GLP safety and automated screening assays using its library of ion channel-expressing cell lines - the most comprehensive in the world. Since its inception in 1998, ChanTest has tested more than 18,000 compounds for more than 250 global pharmaceutical and biotech companies - helping them to achieve their drug safety and discovery goals. ChanTest works in partnership with customers to speed the drug-development process, save time and money, and ultimately -- to help make better, safer drugs. Because of ChanTest's seminal role in this field, along with the company's uncompromising commitment to quality, ChanTest was named "most trusted fee-for-service provider" for ion channel screening in the HTStec Ion Channel Trends Survey for two years in a row. ChanTest is based in Cleveland, Ohio. For more information, please visit www.chantest.com.
CONTACT: Media: Caroline A. Grossman for ChanTest, +1-781-771-5579,
caroline.grossman@gmail.com; or Company contact: Robert D. Schultek,
+1-216-332-1665 ext. 108, Cell: +1-216-272-4449, rschultek@chantest.com, of
ChanTest
Web site: http://www.chantest.com/
