The University of Dundee and global life sciences company Bio-Techne will partner to commercialise technology to help combat undruggable diseases.

Bio-Techne has signed the exclusive licensing agreement to commercialise Dundee’s BromoTAG system and fund the recruitment of postdoctoral researchers at the university’s Centre for Targeted Protein Degradation (CeTPD).

Working alongside leading global TPD scientists, researchers at the CeTPD will create new chemical tools that will be made available by Tocris, a Bio-Techne brand, for use by the biomedical research community.

Malfunctioning proteins are a primary mechanism of disease development. Drug discovery scientists aim to identify these aberrant proteins in the cell, understand their function, and develop novel compounds to target them.

Conventional methods for doing this are costly and have limitations that prevent researchers from controlling protein levels directly, quickly, and reliably.

BromoTAG enables scientists to determine which individual proteins possess the greatest potential as a target for new therapeutic agents. Using genome-editing technologies, BromoTAG pins a small biological tag to a target protein and labels it for subsequent modifications, for example cellular degradation, allowing researchers to evaluate its functional role and impact on disease development.

CeTPD Director, Professor Alessio Ciulli, who is a pioneer in protein degraders research, commented: “We are delighted to announce the successful commercialisation of a recent discovery in the Centre for Targeted Protein Degradation, and for continued collaborative work between Dundee and Tocris. We will jointly work to develop the next-generation BromoTAG for a variety of applications.

“The licensing deal deepens the relationship between the university and Bio-Techne, while the postdoctoral project at Dundee is the first of its kind that the company has invested in. These developments cement the importance of our research to the field of targeted protein degradation.”

BromoTAG was developed by Conner Craigon and Adam Bond, PhD students at CeTPD. A powerful chemical biology tool, it enables the rapid and selective removal of any individual protein.

It has been shown to degrade the tagged protein at low concentrations, within minutes, and reversibly. Critically, it degrades only the individual target protein and prevents any off-target effects.

“I am particularly pleased about the fact BromoTAG was developed by two of our highly talented PhD researchers,” continued Professor Ciulli. “This demonstrates that it is possible to achieve rapid commercialisation of the research taking place here and highlights the opportunities for the best young scientists available at Dundee’s CeTPD, and our School of Life Sciences more widely.”

Recommended

• 15 Scottish Traveltech companies to watch
• Review underway to explore updating UK cryptocurrency law
• UK Gov publishes review into automation in horticulture

Will Geist, Bio-Techne’s Protein Sciences Segment President, said: “We are excited about TPD, both as an enabling technology for life science research, as well as for its potential to deliver a wave of new therapeutics in the clinic.

“Bio-Techne has built a leading portfolio of tools and technologies to support scientists through every stage of their TPD research, and we are delighted to offer BromoTAG to researchers through our license with the University of Dundee.

“BromoTAG’s ability to rapidly degrade any target protein with high precision in a dose-dependent manner, is a huge benefit to scientists, both for target validation and further exploration of the proteome. We have a long-standing relationship with the University of Dundee to commercialise exciting and useful technology and look forward to expanding this relationship through our support of post-doctoral research to further develop this platform.”

Get the latest news from DIGIT direct to your inbox

Our newsletter covers the latest technology and IT news from Scotland and beyond, as well as in-depth features and exclusive interviews with leading figures and rising stars.

To subscribe, click here.