Paris, 19 May 2014 – Hybrigenics (ALHYG), a bio-pharmaceutical group listed on the Alternext market of Euronext in Paris, with a focus on research and development of new treatments against proliferative diseases and specialized in proteomic and genomic scientific services, today announces that Hybrigenics Services’ yeast-chemical hybrid screening system (ULTImate YChemH) has received the “Most Innovative New Service” of the year award during the 4th Annual European Lab Automation Exhibition in Barcelona (www.lifescienceawards.com).
Launched at the beginning of 2013 (see Hybrigenics’ press release of January 24, 2013), the ULTImate YChemH service is designed to identify interactions between small molecules and protein targets. Using a chemical linkage adaptation of its optimized “yeast two-hybrid” technology, Hybrigenics Services can screen a small molecule as “bait” against proprietary cDNA or genomic libraries expressing millions of “prey” protein fragments as potential targets. These exhaustive screens are of interest to academic and industrial customers from both efficacy (“on-targets”) and safety (“off-targets”) perspectives. Other ULTImate YChemH applications include drug repositioning or de-orphanisation through elucidation of novel mechanisms of action.
The ULTImate YChemH service has been developed as a collaborative project between Hybrigenics Services and Charnwood Molecular, an English medicinal chemistry firm, with the support of a €400,000 subsidy from the European Union under the Eurostars® programme for innovative SMEs.
“This Life Science Award is the recognition of the breakthrough that the yeast-chemical hybrid system represents,” said Jean-Christophe Rain, Hybrigenics Services’ COO in charge of technical developments. “One year after launch, the momentum is building up to transform this technical achievement into commercial success,” said Etienne Formstecher, Hybrigenics Services’ CEO.
About Hybrigenics
Hybrigenics (www.hybrigenics.com) is a bio-pharmaceutical group listed (ALHYG) on the Alternext market of Euronext in Paris, focusing its internal R&D programs on innovative targets and therapies for the treatment of proliferative diseases and providing cutting-edge proteomic and genomic scientific services.
Hybrigenics’ current development program is based on inecalcitol, a vitamin D receptor agonist active by oral administration. Oral inecalcitol has shown excellent tolerance and strong presumption of efficacy for the first-line treatment of metastastic castrate-resistant prostate cancer in combination with Taxotere®, which is the current gold-standard chemotherapeutic treatment for this indication. Oral inecalcitol is currently being tested in chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients, an indication for which inecalcitol has received orphan drug status in Europe.
Hybrigenics has a research collaboration with Servier on deubiquitinating enzymes and their inhibitors in oncology, neurology, psychiatry, rheumatology, ophthalmology, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Hybrigenics continues to build on its pioneer research position in the field of ubiquitin-specific proteases by exploring their role in other areas of particular relevance, such as inflammation and virology.
Hybrigenics Services (www.hybrigenics-services.com) is the market leader in Yeast Two-Hybrid (Y2H) and related services to identify, validate and inhibit protein interactions for researchers in all areas of life sciences, using its ISO 9001-certified high-throughput Y2H screening platform.
Helixio (www.helixio.eu), Hybrigenics’ genomic branch, provides state-of-the-art services specialized in DNA chips, DNA or RNA target enrichment and next generation sequencing.
Hybrigenics Corp., based in Cambridge, Mass., is the American subsidiary of Hybrigenics.