Sovicell CEO presents novel peptide binding assay at ISSX/JSSX San Francisco

news-releasesSovicell GmbH
October 14th 2014

Leipzig, Germany: –Dr. Hinnerk Boriss, CEO of dedicated ADMET testing services provider, Sovicell, will present details of TRANSIL equilibrium Shift Assay, the company’s novel tool for optimizing the half-life of peptide drugs.

Dr. Boriss will present a poster (P10) on Monday October 20ththat details the TRANSIL assay’s capabilities to measure albumin and plasma protein binding of peptide drugs.

Knowledge about plasma protein binding is important for dosage scaling and helps optimizing the peptides’ half-life. Plasma protein binding measurements are an essential part of drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics (DMPK) and ADME studies, as binding influences efficacy, dosing, clearance, half-life and drug interactions. While the methods to assess plasma binding of drugs have been largely standardized, experimental evidence shows that they generally fail for peptide or protein drugs.

Overcoming obstacles: membrane penetration and stickiness

Sovicell’s TRANSIL equilibrium Shift Assay overcomes several difficulties faced by researchers.

Typically, peptides exhibit difficulties in penetrating dialysis or ultra filtration membrane pores, which makes it difficult to use these techniques to assess plasma protein binding of peptide drugs.

A further challenge is to maintain peptides in solution in pure buffer. The new TRANSIL assay overcomes these challenges by reducing the incubations to a single compartment, eliminating the need for membranes and allowing the presence of plasma in all incubations.

Sovicell will offer a discount of 30 per cent off any orders placed during the JSSX/ISSX event until the end of October.

About Sovicell

Sovicell GmbH is a provider of ready-to-use ADME-Tox (ADMET) test systems for predicting pharmacokinetics and an assay development service provider.

Sovicell’s range of ADMET-based products and services, enable customers to obtain rapid, accurate and reproducible pharmacokinetic data and side-effect predictions about candidate drugs or other test substances.

Located in the ancient city of Leipzig, Sovicell has established a trustworthy reputation in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries over almost two decades and now has partners in the US, Japan, and India.

Sovicell’s business is based on ready-to-use toolkits for ADMET tests that support preclinical research programs in drug discovery and facilitate a shift from labor-intensive “home-brew” approaches to fully automated, minimal labor, processes.

Many of the tests are based on TRANSIL, Sovicell’s proprietary and patented innovative bead-based technology platform that underpins reliable membrane permeability and protein binding assays. TRANSIL addresses current issues in drug discovery by providing assay systems both for soluble polar and lipophilic chemistries.

Dr. Hinnerk Boriss

The CEO and owner of Sovicell GmbH has been working in drug discovery for over a decade, with more than 25 years of scientific experience at the interface of math and biology. He received his education in biochemistry, theoretical physics and biostatistics from the University of Göttingen, Germany, the University of California Davis, the Max Planck Institute for Limnology and Stanford University.

Dr. Boriss has used his specialized knowledge of assay development through a combination of mathematical modeling of assay conditions and wet-lab validation to pioneer a range of clinical diagnostic tests and biochemical assays.

About ISSX/JSSX

The joint scientific meetings of the Japanese Society for the Study of Xenobiotics (JSSX) and the International Society for the Study of Xenobiotics (ISSX) will held on October 19 – 23, 2014 at the San Francisco Hilton Hotel.

This event builds on the previous joint meeting of the two bodies in Maui, Hawaii in 2005. The conference is intended to provide researchers with an opportunity to exchange fundamental new findings and cutting-edge information related to xenobiotic metabolism and disposition.

The meeting will begin on Sunday, October 19 with short courses on DDI prediction, metabolite biosynthesis and structure determination, Non-CYP metabolism, and a tutorial on using database mining to maximize the use of DMPK and DDI data during clinical development of new chemical entities. There will be 14 scientific symposia that encompass a broad spectrum of topics along with plenary lectures by the ISSX North American Scientific Achievement Awardees and the JSSX Kitagawa and Young Investigator Awardees.

In addition, there will be poster sessions, a trade exhibition, and industry-sponsored symposia.

More information at: http://www.issx.org/?page=JSSX_ISSX