Paris, France - February 24th, 2009 - Hybrigenics, a bio-pharmaceutical company with a focus on research and development of new cancer treatments and specialized in protein interactions, announced today it has signed a substantial contract as part of a large-scale European Union research project called MASTERSWITCH.
Hybrigenics will deploy its protein interaction expertise in the field of chronic inflammatory diseases. The company will develop a high throughput assay and screen its diverse 100,000 compound library and its collection of about 2,000 natural substances. The aim is to identify small-molecule inhibitors of a therapeutically relevant protein interaction. A hit-to-lead optimization program will then be conducted in close collaboration with Dr. Frédérique Ponchel (Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine, UK) and Prof. Richard Aspinall (Translational Medicine, Cranfield University, UK).
Hybrigenics will receive more than EUR 400,000 over the first two years of the five year-long consortium agreement. “This EU contract is the recognition at international level of the excellence of Hybrigenics’ expertise in this area of protein interaction assay development and screening,” said Rémi Delansorne, CEO at Hybrigenics.
About Hybrigenics
Hybrigenics is a bio-pharmaceutical company listed (ALHYG) on Alternext in Paris, focusing its internal R&D programs on innovative targets and therapies for the treatment of cancer. Hybrigenics’ development program is based on inecalcitol, a vitamin D analogue, for the treatment of hormone-resistant prostate cancer in combination with Sanofi-Aventis’ Taxotere(R), which is the current gold-standard chemotherapeutic treatment for this indication. Hybrigenics’ research program explores the role of enzymes known as ubiquitin-specific proteases (USP) in the degradation of onco-proteins, and the effectiveness of proprietary USP inhibitors in treating various types of cancer.
Hybrigenics also offers a range of services to identify, validate and inhibit protein interactions to researchers in all areas of life sciences through its Hybrigenics Services unit, using its ISO 9001-certified high-throughput Yeast-Two Hybrid (Y2H) screening platform, its sophisticated bioinformatics tools and extensive database, along with its chemical library and chemical screening platform.
About MASTERSWITCH
MASTERSWITCH stands for “Mechanisms to Attack STeering Effectors of Rheumatoid Syndromes With Innovative Therapy CHoices). It is a large scale research project part of the European Union’s 7th Framework Programme and involves a 16-strong consortium coordinated by Pr. Tom Huizinga (Leiden University Medical Center, NL). Its main objective is to tackle chronic inflammatory diseases using new therapeutic approaches, including a novel protein interaction pathway.
