Enzymlogic provides binding kinetics expertise to a RETOS-COLABORACION project supported with €1.1 million funding from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.
Enzymlogic is joining a group of leading Spanish academic and industry researchers known as the DIGITAL (Diagnostic, monitoring and treatment of patients with genetic disorders detected through newborn screening and metabolic rare diseases) consortium. The central aim of DIGITAL project is to promote a comprehensive, multi-faceted, yet mutually-reinforcing approach to developing better diagnostic methods, follow-up tests and treatments of inborn errors of metabolism (IEM) diseases.
What are IEMs?
IEMs are a genetically heterogeneous group of disorders characterized by dysfunction of an enzyme or other protein involved in cellular metabolism.
Although these diseases are individually rare, the total incidence has been shown to be upwards of 1/1000. IEMs are life-threatening and extremely-debilitating diseases which severely affect the pediatric population.
Enzymlogic will provide access to its expertise in enzymology and to its binding kinetics discovery platform to guide the affinity and kinetic optimization of drug candidates. In particular, Enzymlogic’s binding kinetics platform allow the study of how long drugs stay bound to their targets, helping researchers develop more effective treatments.
Binding kinetics
Drugs’ binding kinetics determine how fast a drug and its target associate and dissociate. Drug’s dissociation rate from its target is key to understanding how to discover better drugs and reduce costs by withdrawing ineffective or unsafe molecules earlier in the drug discovery process.
A public-private collaboration
The three-year program is grounded in a holistic view of innovation and seeks to develop a genetic method for diagnose IEMs detected through newborn screening, a state-of-the-art biosensor for monitoring diagnosed patients and novel therapeutic agents. We look forward to working with the other partners to advance our collective understanding in this area and to generate the tools needed to improve the success rate of drug discovery and development for the treatment of IEMs diseases.
The DIGITAL project has been set up as part of the RETOS-COLABORACION Program, and is funded with €1.1 million from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. The project will include six partners from leading academic institutions (Barcelona University and Pompeu Fabra University) and biotech companies (Enzymlogic, qGenomics, Minorix and Devicare).
More info at MINECO
