TUCSON, AZ – LUCEOME BIOTECHNOLOGIES a privately held biotechnology company focused on the discovery and development of its innovative proprietary assay platform today announced the award of $1.6 million in grant funding from The National Institutes of Health to further their research in high throughput screening using the KinaseSeeker™ technology. Earlier this year, Luceome was awarded a grant for $287K for research in the area of poly(ADP-ribose) detection.
Reena Zutshi, PhD, President & CEO of LUCEOME BIOTECHNOLOGIES, LLC will lead the research as the firm’s Principal Investigator. “We are very grateful to receive the awards from NIH to continue this important research”, said Dr. Zutshi. “These highly competitive awards provide a strong validation of the versatility of our platform technology in the area of drug discovery and development”.
The Phase II award will support the development of the company’s KinaseSeeker technology for identification and profiling of inhibitors against the human kinome. The KinaseSeeker technology involves a luminescence based, three-hybrid assay system, where the reassembly of a split-luciferase reporter is controlled by the binding of a kinase probe. Displacement of the probe by an inhibitor gives a direct measure of the inhibitory potency of the compound. Such profiling assays are expected to provide information on off-target effects in addition to the desired on-target effects of inhibitors.
The Phase I grant will provide funding to demonstrate feasibility of the assay for detection of poly(ADP-ribose), a biomarker of DNA damage, and allow for subsequent Phase II submission for development of assay kits and reagents to enable drug discovery.
About Luceome Biotechnologies
Luceome Biotechnologies is an emerging, privately-held biotechnology company located in Tucson, Arizona. Luceome enables drug discovery by leveraging its assay technology for identification of drugs against several molecular targets, including kinases, protein-protein interactions and DNA damage. Luceome’s assays are based on a technology platform that utilizes luciferase fragment complementation. The resulting luminescence detection is sensitive with low background interference, allowing identification of target and off-target effects of drug candidates.