Dimerix Bioscience Pty. Ltd.
This article was originally published in Start Up
Executive Summary
Dimerix Bioscience is using its proprietary assay technology to identify GPCRs that act in pairs to form GPCR heterodimers. These receptor pairs bind ligands differently, and trigger alternate signaling pathways to stand-alone GPCR monomers, which have provided the model for most drug discovery in this area to date. This understanding, gained over the last decade or so, that some GPCRs act in groups of two or more, raises the possibility of using several types of ligands to elicit precisely the response pattern required from the individual GPCRs within the pair. Thus for example if one GPCR leads to a positive effect and the other to a negative one, scientists might combine an agonist to generate the positive effect, and an antagonist to block the negative response.