Nuclera, a biotechnology company specializing in protein expression and optimization, has announced a strategic collaboration with global life sciences leader Cytiva to dramatically accelerate the timeline for protein characterization in drug development. The partnership combines Nuclera's benchtop eProtein Discovery System with Cytiva's Biacore surface plasmon resonance (SPR) technology to reduce protein production and characterization from months to just five days.
Addressing Critical Drug Development Bottleneck
Proteins represent 95% of drug targets designed to combat disease, making rapid access to these proteins and understanding their interactions with drug candidates essential for drug development. The traditional timeline of months for obtaining and characterizing proteins has long been a significant bottleneck in pharmaceutical research.
The collaboration's breakthrough achievement was showcased at two major industry conferences: Discovery on Target and PEGS Europe. During these demonstrations, Nuclera's eProtein Discovery System successfully produced two clinically significant proteins - Bruton's Tyrosine Kinase (BTK) and Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF) - which were subsequently functionally characterized using Cytiva's Biacore SPR system.
Technology Integration and Clinical Impact
Bruton's Tyrosine Kinase, one of the proteins demonstrated in the collaboration, is particularly significant as it is implicated in B-cell malignancies. The ability to rapidly produce and characterize such therapeutically relevant proteins represents a substantial advancement in drug discovery capabilities.
"Collaborating with life science leader Cytiva supports Nuclera in our mission of improving human health," said Dr. Yvonne Tan, Associate Director of Product Management at Nuclera. "Through this collaboration, we have demonstrated eProtein Discovery's ability to produce clinically significant proteins that can be used in characterization experiments. Combining eProtein Discovery's capability to streamline protein production workflows with Cytiva's Biacore protein characterization systems open a whole new avenue for accelerating drug development."
Streamlined Workflow Integration
The collaboration enables researchers to progress rapidly from DNA to purified and characterized protein, facilitating crucial insights into drug-target interactions. Cytiva's Biacore SPR technology provides detailed molecular interaction analysis, while Nuclera's eProtein Discovery System handles the upstream protein production and purification processes.
Anna Moberg, Senior Manager and Project Manager at Cytiva, emphasized the complementary nature of the technologies: "The ability of Nuclera's eProtein Discovery to accelerate protein production and purification complements Cytiva's Biacore SPR technology by streamlining the upstream protein production process. We look forward to continuing our collaboration to further enhance the production of characterizable proteins for drug development."
Industry Implications
This collaboration addresses a fundamental challenge in pharmaceutical research where the lengthy timeline for protein characterization has historically slowed drug discovery efforts. By reducing this timeline from months to days, the partnership could significantly accelerate the early stages of drug development, potentially bringing new therapies to patients faster.
The successful demonstration of producing and characterizing both BTK and VEGF proteins within the five-day timeframe validates the practical application of this integrated approach for clinically relevant targets across different therapeutic areas.
