Cyprotex has signed a new licensing agreement with Sigma Life Science to add CompoZr Zinc Finger Nuclease technology to its screening services.
Sigma Life Science has applied its exclusive CompoZr Zinc Finger Nuclease technology to the ADME-Tox field to create proprietary cell-based assays for drug candidate screening.
Sigma's new single and double functional knockout transporter services are expected to help Cyprotex to offer its customers detailed, specific, mechanistic assays to investigate the interaction of test compounds with MDR1 (P-gp), BCRP and MRP2 transporters.
With the usage of the Sigma knockout transporter cell assays, determination of transporter activity can be done without the need for chemical inhibitors.
The transporter is considered to have more physiologically relevance than many other cell-based systems as multiple transporters are expressed in a human cell line.
Cyprotex chief executive officer Anthony Baxter said, "I am delighted to be able to announce our new licensing agreement with Sigma Life Science which enables Cyprotex to be one of the first companies to offer knockout transporter screening services based on Zinc Finger Nuclease technology."
Sigma Life Science market segment manager Paul Brooks said, "These novel assays are key products of our highly predictive suite of engineered cell lines and transgenic animal models, and were generated with our proprietary CompoZr? Zinc Finger Nuclease technology."