Biopharma and biotechnology
When a binding assay cannot answer a question about a candidate, development can stall even after substantial work has been invested. Pavonis reviews the unresolved interaction, target and samples to assess whether a VICA™ study can provide the binding, specificity or kinetic measurements your team needs. Those measurements help researchers select candidates for further characterization or identify experimental conditions that need closer investigation.
Candidate selection
Comparing candidates under the same assay conditions provides a basis for interpreting differences in binding. With the controls and measurements agreed, your team can use those differences to identify molecules for more detailed characterization.
A candidate’s binding to additional targets or response to competing interactions may affect its selection for further work. Selected specificity and competition studies examine those interactions so your team can investigate them before advancing the candidate.
Binding observed in buffer may change in another matrix or at a different pH, ionic strength or temperature. By comparing selected conditions with VICA™, your team can investigate whether the interaction persists in an environment relevant to the program.
Service study
Producing research proteins is costly, particularly when a candidate may not progress. VICA™’s small-sample studies let your team compare selected candidates before committing material to more detailed characterization.
The unresolved binding question, existing findings and agreed research samples
Candidate binding, specificity or the effects of sample conditions, using suitable VICA™ assays
The agreed comparisons, with binding affinity (KD) and association/dissociation rates (kon and koff) where supported, to guide further characterization
Sample requirements are confirmed for the proposed assays before work begins.
For an emerging biotech, the next experiment must make useful progress within a limited budget; a larger biopharma team may be investigating a problem that has stalled an established program. We plan the assay with your scientists and agree on deliverables, timing and price with your project manager so the proposed work can be assessed against those requirements. Pavonis then performs the study alongside your existing assays, allowing your team to evaluate the findings without purchasing an instrument or transferring its established workflow.
Published research
In a Nature Communications investigation of apolipoprotein A1 and matrix metalloproteinase-2, VICA™ was used to examine binding between the proteins. Those measurements contributed to a broader study whose biological findings drew on several experimental methods.
A pilot offers a way to evaluate the method for your candidate set before commissioning additional studies.
Scope
The binding differences measured in a study can help prioritize candidates, while biological function, efficacy and safety require additional investigation. For that early comparison work, Pavonis assesses target and assay suitability before confirming the study. The current VICA™ platform is manually operated, with automated thousand-compound campaigns and specialist low-picomolar affinity measurements outside its capabilities.
Next step
Describe the binding question holding up your next step, the findings you already have and the molecules and material available. Include the timing and budget requirements so we can assess assay suitability and propose work your scientific and project teams can evaluate together.
