Asterand Subsidiary Grants Access To 'Biomodels'
Detroit-based Asterand plc (LSE: ATD) said its subsidiary, BioSeek LLC of South San Francisco, Calif., has signed a two-year agreement with Cellzome, a drug discovery company with laboratories in Germany and England.
Under the agreement, BioSeek will apply its BioMap predictive human disease models to support and advance Cellzome's discovery projects in the treatment of inflammatory diseases.
Oliver Rausch, vice president of biology at Cellzome, said that "the BioMap platform will allow us to receive early insight into the human pharmacological and toxicological properties of our small molecules, enabling us to develop safer and more effective treatments for inflammation."
Added Asterand CEO Martyn Coombs: "Our BioMap platform is uniquely suited for predicting possible human clinical responses of the small molecules Cellzome identifies with its proprietary screening and profiling technologies, Kinobeads and Episphere. Our team looks forward to working with Cellzome scientists on the advancement of new innovative treatments for inflammatory diseases. We are also delighted with BioSeek's performance since being successfully integrated earlier this year and this is clearly demonstrated by the Cellzome agreement, the fifth collaboration agreement signed this year."
Asterand supplies human tissue and tissue-based services to pharmaceutical, biotech and diagnostic companies. Asterand's mission is to accelerate target discovery and compound validation and enable pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to take safer and more effective drugs into the market.
More at www.asterand.com or www.cellzome.com.
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