Proteins

To drive your therapeutic protein project forward, we harness the most appropriate technology to produce and characterize your protein. Our expert team have to a range of biochemical and biophysical assay techniques to validate.

Many of our PhD-qualified scientists have experience producing, handling, manipulating and developing proteins within a drug discovery setting. Our scientists help expedite our client protein-based projects to their next milestone by:

• Establishing protein production using cell free, bacterial and eukaryotic cell expression systems
• Creating a customized QC workflow utilising our expertise in biophysical tools including dynamic light scattering (DLS), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and size exclusion chromatography multi-angle light scattering (SEC-MALS)
• Understanding the potential of a protein therapy to trigger a non-therapeutic immune response using both bespoke and off-the-shelf tests including cytokine release and T cell proliferation assays
• Validating the protein-based therapy by mechanism of action studies and analysis of target engagement by biophysical binding assays including surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and cellular assays including flow cytometry

Therapeutic proteins in drug discovery

If there is any doubt as to the importance of protein-based therapies in modern medicine, look no further than Pembrolizumab, an antibody used in oncology, and the world’s best-selling drug. Indeed, around half of the top ten best-selling drugs are antibodies, used to bind with exquisite selectivity to extracellular targets to treat a range of indications. But monoclonal antibodies are but one type of protein used as drugs, others include antibody drug conjugates (ADCs), (PEGylated-) enzymes, bispecifics and Fc-fusion proteins, amongst others.

Emerging trends in the protein field include the development of supercharged protein variants which have enhanced resistance to aggregation, combined with superior cellular penetration; protein spherical nucleic acids – creating proteins coated with DNA could lead to longer retention times and increased bioavailability, relative to PEG variants; and proteins containing precisely located unnatural α-amino acids providing handles for post-translational modification & bioconjugation and to fine tune the activity and the chemical properties of the wild-type protein. We can safely say that protein-based therapies are here to stay.

Unsure what’s next in the development journey of your protein-based therapy? We can help.