Contact: Ralph Kauten Phone: 608-441-2950 ralphk@qblifesci.com http://www.qbilifesci.com
MADISON, Wis. April 25, 2006– QBI Life Sciences announced today the release of the PreserveX™ Pro-Screen Pack S1, which contains six polymeric micelle formulations to allow researchers to work with difficult to handle membrane proteins. The Pro-Screen Pack S1, an extension of the PreserveX™ line, was launched at the annual meeting of the Protein Science Society of Japan being held in Kyoto Japan.
QBI Life Sciences focuses on membrane proteins because they are the most important targets for drug discovery. The line of PreserveX™ products gives researchers the ability to isolate, stabilize, and preserve the membrane proteins which can lead to better drug discovery techniques, more accurate results and more efficiency in the process of drug screening and analysis.
The Pro-Screen Pack S1 contains a trial size (150 µl each, enough for two to three experiments) of six formulations which differ in particle size and charge, so researchers can use the pack to more efficiently determine the best formulation for their membrane protein. Each of the polymeric micelles contained in the Pro-Screen Pack S1 consists of a proprietary mixture of non-detergent amphiphiles that resembles the native membrane environment.
The metrics of discovery and development for pharmaceuticals include enormous costs and considerable amounts of time as many expensive studies are required to achieve comfort with the safety and efficacy of new drugs before market approval is granted. Yet many drugs fail to get market approval after hundreds of millions of dollars are spent.
“QBI Life Sciences is working to change the metrics of drug discovery by meeting the need for research in the membrane protein area,” said Ralph Kauten, CEO of QBI Life Sciences. “It is estimated that 70% of all approved drugs deliver a therapeutic response by binding to a membrane protein, yet many of the laboratory procedures developed to discover drugs do not work effectively with membrane proteins. We’re changing that.”
As the drug discovery industry looks to tackle challenges of increasingly complex diseases, research with membrane proteins will continue to move to the center of pharmaceutical research. Potential applications for the PreserveX™ line include assay development, high throughput screening, and membrane protein characterization.
Vladimir Trubetskoy, Ph.D., Director of Polymer Chemistry has headed up a team at QBI Life Sciences to develop polymer nanoparticles that are useful in working with membrane proteins (those proteins that reside on, near or embedded in cellular membranes). Dr. Trubetskoy and his team of scientists have come up with a set of very valuable drug discovery tools including membrane protein stabilizing reagents and surface coatings for membrane protein microarrays.
QBI Life Sciences, a division of Quintessence Biosciences, Inc., is the first company to develop polymeric micelles for membrane proteins to enable new areas of research. For more information about the Pro-Screen Pack S1 or to learn more about QBI Life Sciences, visit http://www.qbilifesci.com.
