deltaDOT Ltd and Integrated Technologies receive
£465k Grant from South East England Development Agency to develop Osprey, a
decisive new tool in drug discovery
London, UK, 4 June 2007 - deltaDOT Ltd and
Integrated Technologies (ITL) are pleased to announce that they have been
awarded a £465,000 Grant from the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA)
for the commercial development of a highly innovative tool for drug
discovery and biopharmaceuticals.
The three parties will use this new funding to build a novel system, based
on a prototype successfully constructed under the highly effective DTI-EPSRC
‘Applied Genomics’ programme. This programme was led by deltaDOT and
Imperial College, which together form the Protein Folding Chip Consortium.
The proposed new drug discovery tool, Osprey, was initially developed by
deltaDOT, a developer of highly innovative enabling technologies and
products for bioscience research. Osprey will allow researchers to reduce
dramatically the time it takes to weed out drug candidates that are
unsuitable for the therapy or treatment being designed. Typically, so-called
‘small molecule’ drug candidates effect physiological change at a
sub-cellular level by attaching to or in some way affecting proteins within
the cell. The small molecule drug candidates attach to proteins according to
the highly complex protein structures, of which their folding or unfolding
is perhaps the most important.
Traditionally, large pharmaceutical companies search molecular compound
libraries containing millions of drug candidates to identify a small number
of molecules that, by binding to the protein associated with a disease,
might potentially offer a patient any benefit. There are many tools in use,
but progress is usually slow and prone to error, which partly accounts for
the typically huge ($850m (£430m)) research costs that are spent for every
successful ‘block-buster’ drug.
The Osprey will provide a very powerful new weapon in the drug hunters’
armoury, allowing, for the first time, protein folding structures and the
dynamics of the process to be tested against the drug candidate.
The Osprey Biomolecule Stability Analyzer (BSA) is a microfluidic chip-based
instrument that applies aspects of deltaDOT’s Label Free Intrinsic Imaging™
(LFII™) to the characterization of the properties of proteins, rather than
to their separations, and targets the market for QA/QC of biopharmaceuticals
as its first application.
Dr Tony Baxter, CEO of deltaDOT said: “Osprey is the third of deltaDOT’s
fleet of productivity tools, and has the potential to transform the drug
discovery landscape. This instrument offers a one-stop solution to the
increasingly difficult R&D environment of the world’s drug discovery and
development companies, many of which are located in the South East of
England. We are delighted that SEEDA has awarded this significant
development grant; it will serve to reinforce further deltaDOT’s lead in
label-free technologies serving the biomedical communities, and will bring
renewed R&D focus and technological leadership to our region”.
Dr Greg Smith, Director of ITL, said: “As a world leader in analytical
instrument design and manufacture, ITL is delighted to be able to contribute
over 30 years’ successful experience to assist the consortium in developing
this important instrument. The system will have far-reaching implications
for the world pharmaceutical industry and should reduce drug selection times
dramatically. Again it shows that the UK, and in particular the South East,
is among the top innovators in the Biotech world”.
SEEDA's Knowledge Transfer Manager, Colin Baldwin said: “This pioneering and
visionary work will have a dramatic impact both in terms of accelerating
progress in drug discovery as well as benefiting patients in terms of new
applications of drugs. SEEDA recognises the pivotal roles that all the
partners will play in this critical collaborative venture. Above all, this
is testimony to the world class research, development, innovation and
leadership that is synonymous with the biotechnology industry throughout the
South East. It is crucial that this industry continues to be a thriving and
vibrant beacon for the region."
Notes to editors:
About deltaDOT Ltd
deltaDOT ( http://www.deltadot.com
) is a biotechnology company that is developing and commercialising highly
innovative enabling technologies and products in the bioscience arena. The
company was founded in 2000 and is a spin-out from Imperial College of
Science, Technology and Medicine in London, UK. It is focused on the
harnessing of cutting-edge particle physics technology and its application
to the needs of biomolecular separation, including proteins, DNA and RNA
analysis. The company has a strong proprietary position and extensive
expertise in instrumentation, microfluidics, automation, computing and
analysis which will contribute to improvements in knowledge, profitability
and process time throughout drug discovery and general life sciences
research.
About Integrated Technologies Ltd
Integrated Technologies Ltd (ITL) (
www.itl.co.uk ) is an engineering company which designs and manufactures
medical, diagnostic and analytical instruments under contract for third
parties. It works within the constraint of its New Product Development
Lifecycle which documents all the necessary steps, checks and balances to
enable a controlled and structured development programme to be followed.
With well over 30 years’ experience, ITL gives its customers the confidence
to invest their time and money in development programmes knowing that they
have full visibility of the development and are in total control. ITL’s aim
is to provide a time and cost effective development programme leading to
controlled manufacture in its own 2000m2 facility. ITL is ISO9001: 2000 BSEN
13485: 2003 and FDA GMP audited and accredited throughout.
About SEEDA
SEEDA ( www.seeda.co.uk ) is the
Government funded agency responsible for the sustainable economic
development and regeneration of the South East of England - the driving
force of the UK's economy. Our aim is to create a prosperous, dynamic and
inspirational region by helping businesses compete more effectively,
training a highly skilled workforce, supporting and enabling our communities
while safeguarding our natural resources and cherishing our rich cultural
heritage.
About Label Free Intrinsic ImagingTM (LFIITM)
deltaDOT’s core technology, Label Free Intrinsic Imaging (LFIITM), coupled
with proprietary powerful analyses, forms the basis of its product offering.
LFII allows the direct monitoring of unlabelled biomolecules in real time,
resulting in much faster, more accurate results at a fraction of the cost of
conventional approaches. deltaDOT is selling its flagship product, the
Peregrine, a high throughput protein analysis system. Other products being
developed are Merlin, the world’s first label free DNA sequencing
instrument, and systems capable of rapid, unbiased analysis of genomic,
proteomic and chemical content of unknown substances and threats.
- ENDS -
Media contacts:
For deltaDOT
Deborah Gaskell
Account Manager
Tel: +44 (0)20 7268 3237
Email: d.gaskell@northbankcommunications.com
For ITL
Greg Smith
Tel: +44 (0)1233 655304
Email: greg.smith@itl.co.uk
