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Invitrogen and NIH Chemical Genomics Center Enter into Chemical Genetics Collaboration |
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07 Mar 2006 |
CARLSBAD, CA, USA | Mar 06, 2006 | Invitrogen Corporation (Nasdaq:IVGN), a provider of essential life science products and services that support disease research and drug discovery, today announced a collaboration with the NIH Chemical Genomics Center (NCGC). The goal of the collaboration is to identify novel small molecules that modulate key signaling pathways associated with disease pathophysiology.
"Our cell-based drug discovery technologies are ideally suited to the investigation of complex disease biology and will be a valuable asset in the NCGC's technology 'toolbox'," said John Printen, R&D Director of Invitrogen's Drug Discovery Solutions business. "We support the NCGC initiative and believe that the small molecules uncovered through this collaboration will provide scientists with the means to better understand disease biology."
Under the collaboration, NCGC will use Invitrogen's CellSensor(TM) cell lines and GeneBLAzer(R) beta-lactamase reporter gene technology to identify compounds that modulate disease relevant signaling pathways. Interrogating complete signal transduction cascades in their normal cellular context - as opposed to assaying individual signaling proteins in isolation - combined with the NCGC's titration-based quantitative high throughput screening (qHTS) paradigm, allows for a greater variety of compound interaction mechanisms to be captured.
All of the screening data from the collaboration will be deposited in PubChem, an NIH database that links chemical structures to biological activities uncovered through screening campaigns. Thus the identified compounds can be further investigated by the research community to deepen molecular understanding of biological processes involved in disease progression. As these new assays generate compounds of interest, Invitrogen and the NCGC may agree to work together to identify the protein targets they affect through the use of additional Invitrogen technologies such as Stealth(TM) RNAi and Protoarray(TM) Human Protein Microarrays. The NCGC was created as part of an NIH initiative to discover novel compounds that can be used to investigate fundamental biological questions or to validate drug targets.
About the NCGC and the NIH Roadmap Initiative
The NCGC is an ultrahigh-throughput screening and chemistry center which discovers chemical probes of gene and cell functions across the genome using its quantitative HTS (qHTS) technology, and develops new paradigms for screening that enable chemical genomics and downstream drug development. Located within the National Human Genome Research Institute as part of the NIH Roadmap, all of the NCGC's results are made freely available via PubChem (http://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). NIH Roadmap for Medical research is a series of far-reaching initiatives designed to transform the Nation's medical research capabilities and speed the movement of scientific discoveries from the bench to the bedside. It provides a framework of the priorities the NIH must address in order to optimize its entire research portfolio and lays out a vision for a more efficient and productive system of medical research. Additional information about the NCGC can be found at http://www.ncgc.nih.gov, about the NIH Roadmap at http://nihroadmap.nih.gov , and about the NIH at http://www.nih.gov/.
About Invitrogen Corporation
Invitrogen Corporation (Nasdaq:IVGN) provides products and services that support academic and government research institutions and pharmaceutical and biotech companies worldwide in their efforts to improve the human condition. The company provides essential life science technologies for disease research, drug discovery, and commercial bioproduction. Invitrogen's own research and development efforts are focused on breakthrough innovation in all major areas of biological discovery including functional genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics and cell biology -- placing Invitrogen's products in nearly every major laboratory in the world. Founded in 1987, Invitrogen is headquartered in Carlsbad, California, and conducts business in more than 70 countries around the world. The company globally employs approximately 4,800 professionals and had revenues of more than $1.2 billion in 2005. For more information, visit www.invitrogen.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
Certain statements contained in this press release are considered "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and it is Invitrogen's intent that such statements be protected by the safe harbor created thereby. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: 1) The small molecules discovered in this collaboration will help researchers better understand molecular biology; 2) The NCGC and Invitrogen may utilize other Invitrogen technologies to identify protein targets affected by the collaboration. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the risks: a) The results of this collaboration may not significantly impact the study of molecular biology; and b) Invitrogen and NCGC may choose not to pursue further facets of the collaboration., as well as other risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in Invitrogen's Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
SOURCE: Invitrogen Corporation |
