NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – ADA Technologies has landed a $1.15 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop an analytical tool for analyzing carbohydrate-protein interactions in drug discovery and diagnostics research.
The company will use the three-year Phase 2 funding to develop a microarray platform for rapidly analyzing carbohydrate and protein interactions that serve as cancer biomarkers.
ADA said that there currently is no cost-effective tool for quickly screening for such interactions.
"Carbohydrates are potential targets for anti-cancer immunotherapy, since they are exposed at the surface of tumor cells, but hidden on normal cells. Many bacteria and other pathogens are also distinguished by carbohydrates, making them good targets for vaccines," said Xichun Zhou, a senior research scientist and principal investigator at ADA.
"Development of an inexpensive glycan analytical tool that has a high degree of accuracy could have major impact on drug discovery and the biopharmaceutical industry, as well as the diagnostic industry," Zhou added.