The pharmaceutical industry has a continuing requirement for new therapeutics, in turn relying on a steady pipeline of new drug leads.
Proteomics International has taken a different approach to satisfying this need.
Working with peptides derived from the venoms of scorpions, centipedes and spiders, it has developed an entirely new way of validating its leads.
The key technology is mass spectrometry and a proprietary process called Bioven. Proteomics International takes the venoms from central Australia’s desert arthropods and other regions, and following pre-processing analyses the venoms through its mass spectrometers. The final phase uses computer based screening to determine peptide identity and predict, by homology matching, the function of the found peptides.
The remarkable finding is that by using this uniquely sensitive process, up to five times more peptides can be found in one venom than previously thought.
Why venoms? There is a history of successful commercial outcomes in the field of venoms.
Every venomous creature has developed over millions of years a selected set of peptides and proteins that have specific functions whether in defence or attack. This process is highly conservative - Nature wastes nothing.
Bioven is finding new molecules which may become anti-microbials, analgesics, anti-hypertensives and more.
The process is an automated, predictive, high-throughput system with the capacity to process a large number of venoms to identify peptides with therapeutic potential in a short period of time.