NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Cisbio Bioassays and the Functional Genomics Institute (IGF) have used a French government grant of €900, 000 ($1.2 million) to start a new research and development program that will use Cisbio's Tag-lite technology to identify and create potential drugs for nervous system disorders.
Cisbio, a member of IBA Group, will use the funds from France's National Research Agency to develop a project called GluSense, which is focused on sensors that enable real-time detection of responses from a family of GPCR targets that are related to disorders such as Parkinson's disease and depression.
The GluSense technology was developed by Cisbio using its Tag-lite platform through a collaboration with researchers at IGF.
The company and the institute also have started a joint lab at IGF to investigate new tools that could be used to study interactions between biomolecules on the surfaces of living cells. These tools will be used in GPCR-focused research, and Cisbio then will transfer the technology out of the lab for marketing to pharmaceutical and biotech companies.
"The GluSense technology allows researchers to better understand the mechanism of action of molecules that act on this receptor class, as well as avoid difficulties when implementing tests used to identify these receptors' allosteric regulators," explained Jean-Philippe Pin, director of IGF's molecular pharmacology department, in a statement.
"Tag-lite has demonstrated that its multiple applications add tremendous scientific value to the research and characterization of GPCR interactions on the cell surface—already it has enabled us to validate new paradigms as illustrated by our results published in leading scientific journals," Pin added.