NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Biocius Life Sciences and BlueSky Biotech today announced a collaboration to offer what they said is the industry's only sirtuin enzyme preparations that are fully validated in a label-free functional assay.
The collaboration builds on an existing relationship and "will significantly improve drug discovery efficiency of the SIRT [silent mating type information regulation homolog] class of epigenetic modulating enzymes," the companies said in a statement. SIRTs are being researched as potential therapeutics for several indications, they added.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The two firms intend to launch a selectivity panel of sirtuins and histone deacetylases as part of the partnership. The first release, of SIRT1, has been linked to the regulation of multiple cellular processes, such as insulin signaling, apoptosis, and cancer, Biocius and BlueSky said. Additional releases of validated enzymes are anticipated during the coming months.
Based in Wakefield, Mass., Biocius provides mass spectrometry-based services and products primarily for drug-discovery purposes. The company was spun out of Biotrove after that firm was acquired by Life Technologies late last year.
BlueSky, based in Worcester, Mass., is a contract research organization and provides services for pharmaceutical R&D.