Aptanomics appoints Michael Courtney as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Thierry Laugel, General Partner at CDC IXIS Innovation and Member of the Board of Aptanomics, welcomed the appointment saying: "Dr Courtney has the managerial, commercial and operational qualifications that are needed to steer the company in the exploitation of its powerful technology platforms in target validation and for the development of novel small molecule drugs." Prior to joining Aptanomics, Dr Courtney (48) was Chief Operating Officer at Noxxon Pharma AG (Berlin, Germany). From 1991 to 2001 he was Chief Scientific Officer at Transgene SA (Strasbourg, France) and from 1989-91 he was Director of Research at Delta Biotechnology Ltd (Nottingham, UK). Dr Courtney received his BSc from the University of Glasgow (UK) and PhD from the University of London (UK). He has gained broad international experience in research, product development, corporate alliances, private placements and, with Transgene, a successful IPO. "Aptanomics has a clearly differentiated technology that provides a powerful new approach to developing small molecule drugs," said Dr Courtney. "I am delighted to have been given the responsibility to lead the company which is at an exciting stage of its development into a product-based biopharmaceutical company." Aptanomics SA is a drug discovery company that is focused on the development of small-molecule drugs based on its proprietary peptide aptamer technology. Peptide aptamers are new combinatorial biological agents that can be selected within cells to inhibit defined protein-protein interactions involving pharmaceutical targets. The aptamers are then employed directly to validate the targets and as the core components in novel drug-screening strategies. The company is pursuing in-house programs and partnerships with pharmaceutical companies. The company raised Euro 7 million in a first round of financing in October 2002. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------,NOTES TO EDITORS: Peptide aptamers,Peptide aptamers are man-made recognition molecules whose design was inspired by the structure of antibodies. Like antibodies and T-cell receptors, they consist of a variable peptide loop attached at both ends to a protein scaffold. This double structural constraint greatly increases the binding affinity of the peptide aptamer to levels comparable to an antibody's (nanomolar or better). Peptide aptamers can be selected from an initial pool of several million for their ability to bind a target protein. Typically, peptide aptamers inhibit biological functions by disrupting specific protein interactions. A third key feature of the technology is that the selection occurs in vivo, which carries significant advantages above other selection methods performed in vitro. This means that Aptanomics can screen against intracellular targets that are more likely to assume their native 3D conformation as they are displayed in an intracellular environment. Also, the selected molecules will not be toxic and will retain their binding capacity when expressed in relevant cellular or animal models. Of vital importance in the development of new drugs, peptide aptamers show an exquisite specificity for their target protein, being able to discriminate between closely related proteins or even between different allelic forms of a given protein. Use of peptide aptamers - In small molecule drug discovery Peptide aptamer technology provides a powerful new method to discover small molecule drugs against important pharmacological targets. High-affinity peptide aptamers can be selected which block defined protein interactions in metabolic pathways that are deregulated in pathological conditions such as cancer. The peptide aptamer can then be employed in specific assays to screen chemical libraries for inhibitors of the key protein interaction.,Moreover, starting from the known structure of its rigid protein platform, the 3D structure of the peptide aptamer both free and bound to its target can be determined. Computer-assisted modeling of the target:aptamer complex can then guide the design of focused chemical sets for further screening to identify potent drug candidates. In target validation Aptanomics' technology can also be employed to dissect the importance of specific intracellular protein-protein interactions in different diseases.,The genomics revolution has led to an explosion of drug-target candidates whose validation is now an industry priority. Numerous technologies are being used to evaluate potential targets notably gene "knock-down" methods such as antisense or siRNA and "knock-out" mice. Peptide aptamers are used as finer tools compared to these approaches in that, rather than remove entirely the target protein from the complex intracellular milieu, aptamers precisely inhibit in turn specific individual functions of the target. This allows Aptanomics not only to validate the role of a given target but concomitantly provides a direct strategy for drug discovery.,
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