Plexpress and SBW Partner to Offer TRAC Gene Expression Analysis

CRO adds TRAC to service portfolio for pre-clinical ADME-Tox studies

 

HELSINKI, FINLAND, 8 May 2012: Plexpress, developer of the innovative TRAC platform for high-throughput gene expression analysis, has announced it will partner with SBW to provide SBW’s customers with access to Plexpress’ novel technology. SBW, a contract research organisation serving the drug discovery market, will offer Plexpress’ pre-validated TRAC Cytochrome P450 (CYP) family multiplex assays as part of its portfolio for investigating in vitro drug interactions and pre-clinical ADME-Tox profiles. Such a service is expected to be very popular, especially given a recent draft report from the FDA, which suggests that drug discovery researchers use CYP mRNA induction, rather than CYP activity, to assess drug metabolism and activity (1).

 

TRAC (Transcript Analysis with the aid of Affinity Capture) technology is a new approach to measuring gene expression changes that offers several benefits over qPCR and microarrays, including higher sample throughput and increased assay speed, while simultaneously reducing technical variation. For more information about how TRAC could boost the efficiency of your drug discovery pipeline, please visit www.plexpress.com. For more information about the new SBW service utilising TRAC, view the full release by visiting the SBW website or contact SBW directly at info@sbw.fi.

 

Reference:

1. FDA Guidance for Industry Report (Feb 2012): Drug Interaction Studies Study Design, Data Analysis, Implications for Dosing, and Labeling Recommendations

 

About Plexpress

Plexpress was established as a spinoff from the Finnish Technology Research Center VTT in 2007. Including R&D at VTT, the company’s TRAC technology has been developed continuously for nearly 10 years and it has been documented in over 15 publications. The technology was originally developed for demanding bioprocess applications, which required a very robust solution for gene expression analysis. Since starting operations in 2008, the company has carried out over 50 projects using the TRAC technology in the fields of pharmaceutical development and academic research.

 

For further information see: www.plexpress.com

 

About SBW

SBW is an integrated contract research organization (CRO), located in Helsinki, Finland and has offices also in Germany and North-America. We operate under the brands SBW/Biodix, SBW/Toxis and SBW/novamass. We offer comprehensive services and platforms for drug discovery, functional food ingredients testing, REACH chemical safety assessment and related life science areas. Our services have more than 100 customers in aroung 20 countries in Europe, Asia and US. We offer services on a fee for service –basis as well as contracting early discovery projects on milestone reward basis. As a proof of our model, we bring our expertise and experience from more than 600 engagements with customers ranging from virtual Biotechs to several top 10 Pharmaceutical companies. We also promote industry‐academia partnerships and are involved in many academic research projects aiming to provide novel innovation services. We are also authors in over 60 peer-reviewed research papers on drug research and technologies since 2005.