Astex Technology Ltd.
This article was originally published in Start Up
Executive Summary
The focus of Astex Technology Ltd., which aims to imrpove the efficiency of protein X-ray crystallography, reflects the drug development background of its founders. X-ray crystallography can be used as a target validation tool, and also in drug discovery, to optimize ligand-protein interactions. Astex will first aim to introduce tools for the latter market.
You may also be interested in...
The University of Cambridge Technology Transfer Office
After years of technology transfer underfunding, Cambridge University is now one of the most successful technology transfer institutes in the UK, holding equity stakes in more than 30 spin-outs and over 220 different patent families.
Protein Structure/Function Determination
After 20 years and the efforts of thousands of researchers working on the problem structures have only been revealed for about 20,000 proteins out of 500,000 known protein sequences. When combined with the latest experimental and computational techniques, sequence and structural information provide some useful guidelines. Pharmaceutical companies are using it to sift from massive amounts of sequence information a more manageable number of biologically relevant targets; the undertaking is now known as structural genomics. Today this field is a hotbed of activity for new companies that offer improved X-ray crystallography techniques, nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, annotated protein databases, computational algorithms, and combinations of all of the above.
Wound Solutions Ltd.
Wound Solutions Ltd. looks to the paradigm of patient self-care in diabetes to address the gaps in chronic wound care, where the feedback provided by blood glucose monitoring encourages changes in behavior. A small device that is placed under a compression bandage helps patients with venous leg ulcers comply with the steps they should be taking to support wound healing, in the process, collecting data that helps clinicians make informed therapy decisions.