IonGate Biosciences and LIVC Technologies establish a technology and marketing co-operation

Frankfurt/Main (Germany), 3rd September 2007. IonGate Biosciences GmbH and LIVC Technologies GmbH, both located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, today announced a co-operation for joint development and marketing of the LIVC Technology. LIVC is a proprietary technology that can initiate and measure voltage activated ion channels via light induction, which works similar to a remote control. This technology ensures high precision and high-throughput with maximum flexibility.

Until now, high-throughput activation and exploration of ion channels has only been possible in low quality. The so-called LIVC Technology (Light Induced Voltage Clamp) finally allows high-throughput screening of voltage activated ion channels without any loss of time or information. Firstly, a light activated ion channel is entered into the target cells. Secondly, this ion channel is then opened via a light impulse. The activation of the ion channel leads to depolarisation of the cell membrane, in other words a reversal of the electric field. This depolarisation in turn activates the ion channels which are the targets of exploration. With LIVC, it is possible to switch on and off voltage activated ion channels very quickly under physiological conditions. Thus, the function of these ion channels in a living organism can be imitated.

The high potential of the LIVC Technology lies in the improvement of research methods in the pharmaceutical industry, for finding new, or optimizing existing, compounds that act directly on the voltage activated ion channels. With LIVC, pharmaceutical companies will be able for the first time to get high-quality information in high–throughput on new drug candidates and their method of action. However, the perspectives for LIVC in pharmaceu¬tical research far exceed the high-throughput screening of new compounds. For example, scientists could study the complex network of neurons in the brain and thus significantly improve the diagnosis of diseases of the central nervous system.

IonGate Biosciences and LIVC Technologies have agreed to co-operate in the area of international marketing of the LIVC Technology. IonGate will present the new technology to an international audience during the “Screening Targets & Ion Channel Targets” conference in Boston, USA, which will be held on the 10th and 11th September 2007. Specifically, a scientific presentation on LIVC will be held on the 10th of September at 3:55 p.m.

Contact
Wolfgang Lerch
Managing Director
IonGate Biosciences GmbH
Industriepark Hoechst / Building D528
65926 Frankfurt/Main
Germany

phone +49.69.305.85 400
fax +49.69.305.85 444
email info@iongate.net

Media inquiries
Dr. Holger Bengs
Biotech Consulting

phone +49.69.619.94 273
fax +49.69.619.94 249
email info@holgerbengs.de

About IonGate Biosciences GmbH

IonGate Biosciences GmbH develops, produces and markets innovative screening tech¬nologies to investigate transporters and is the worldwide leading company in this area.

Transporters are essential for the metabolic functions of the cell, information processing in the entire organism and play a fundamental role to the health of humans. Due to their difficult experimental accessibility transporters are underrepresented in current drug screening processes so far. For the first time IonGate provides with SURFE2R One and SURFE2R Workstation a highly precise functional screening of transporters in higher throughput and thereby positions itself as a strong partner for the pharmaceutical industry. With its SURFE2R Workstation IonGate has created a technological basis for an auto¬mated and robust analytical technique. The company supplies complete solutions, be¬sides disposables and reagents, this mainly comprises individual consulting services comprising the design of customized applications.

IonGate Biosciences GmbH is a venture capital financed biotechnology company located in Frankfurt/Main in Germany. In addition to the main financier and leading partner Heidelberg Innovation the KfW holds a stake in IonGate. The company was established in 2000 and currently employs more than 30 staff members.


About Ion Channels

The function of ion channels in the body is the fast transport of ions through the cell mem¬brane, and thus the transmission of impulses in the whole organism. This transmission of impulses, for example, enables us to open and read a book (on the motor level) and at the same time to understand what we are reading (on the neurological level). Ion channels also play an important role in the diagnostics and therapy of many diseases, because their unique function is essential for the effect of various medications.


About LIVC Technologies GmbH

LIVC Technologies GmbH specialises in the exploration of voltage induced ion channels via the Light Induced Voltage Clamp (LIVC) Technology. The company was founded in 2007 and works in close co-operation with the Max Planck Institute for Biophysics.

This release was published on openPR.