IonGate sells SURFE2R Technology for the first time overseas

Frankfurt/Main (Germany), 2nd November, 2007. IonGate Biosciences GmbH announces an excellent start into the worldwide marketing of its SURFE2R Technology. Already established in Europe, it has now entered the North American market. In September the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Calgary, in Canada, purchased a SURFE2R One for research on transport proteins. In just a few weeks Prof. Jonathan Lytton, Professor in the Department and a recognized expert on transporter protein research, has already conducted the first successful experiments with his specific target proteins.

Prof. Lytton’s research focuses on calcium homeostasis and its regulation, by studying sodium/calcium exchangers, a family of proteins that play an important role in the cell's ability to properly handle calcium. The transport of calcium in cells regulates vital functions like muscle contractions, nerve impulses or heart rhythm. Dr. Lytton uses various techniques to understand how sodium/calcium exchangers work, how they are regulated, and what happens when their function is impaired. With IonGate's SURFE2R Technology Prof. Lytton now has access to a technique enabling him for the first time to examine the function of his target proteins in a simple, robust, reliable and reproducible manner. Thus he is able to gain new and deeper insights into the characteristics of sodium/calcium exchangers.

SURFE2R One was specially developed to meet the needs of research on transporters with particularly low turnover rates. The SURFE2R (SURFace Electrogenic Event Reader) Technology differs from conventional methods because of its dramatic increase in sensitivity. It enables a direct functional characterization of electrically active membrane proteins, avoiding the need to use fluorescent dyes or radio¬active markers. The SURFE²R instrument family offers academic researchers a technique to analyze transporters functionally and the option to move promising experiments to a higher-throughput screening platform.

Basic research is mostly concerned with fundamental principles and mechanisms. By utilizing the novel technology, a detailed understanding of how transporters work will provide new knowledge, from which it will be possible to develop important new clinical, diagnostic, and therapeutic tools. Furthermore it offers the pharmaceutical industry completely new drug screening methods for target structures of various indications.

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

Dr. Carsten Haber
Scientific Consultant US
IonGate Biosciences GmbH
49 Oak Street
Cohasset, MA 02025
USA
phone +1.781.923.19 61
cell +1.617.794.99 21
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 technologies 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 automated and robust analytical technique. The company supplies complete solutions, besides 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 the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Calgary

The Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the University of Calgary is recognized for its achievements in basic research as well as for excellence in the training of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. More than 55 faculty members belong to six research institutes within the Faculty of Medicine. Members of the department are actively engaged in research that spans cellular signalling, genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics, molecular and developmental genetics, and the molecular basis of disease. These research activities are supported by a number of excellent core facilities, including UCDNA and Protein Services, the Southern Alberta Mass Spectrometry Facility, the Southern Alberta Microarray Facility (SAMF), the Clara Christie Centre for Mouse Genomics, the SACRI Antibody Facility, the Sun Centre for Excellence in Visual genomics, and more.

For more information please refer to: www.ucalgary.ca/bmb/

This release was published on openPR.