Ambit Biosciences Announces Significant Enhancements to KinomeScan's Largest Kinase Panel Grows to 353; Flexible Screening Options Added
SAN DIEGO -- Ambit Biosciences today announced significant enhancements to its KinomeScan™ profiling technology, the industry’s most comprehensive high-throughput system for screening small molecule libraries against large numbers of human kinases. Ambit has added 36 new kinases to its screening panel, including therapeutically relevant lipid, mutant, and atypical kinases. Ambit’s customers now can choose from a total of 353 human kinases to power their drug discovery and optimization efforts.
Ambit also introduced today a set of innovative products that will provide customers with vastly increased flexibility for screening individual compounds or compound libraries. Three new screening panels – KinoMAX, KinomEDGE, and KinomELECT – have been designed to meet a wide range of research and development needs, from specific drug optimization projects focused on investigating a narrow set of kinases to broad discovery programs focused on the entire human kinome.
“Kinases are extremely important targets for a wide range of diseases, including cancer, inflammation, and metabolic and neurological disorders,†said Scott Salka, chief executive officer of Ambit. “At an ever-accelerating pace, scientists are establishing new links between kinases and disease. Our KinomeScan family of services helps our collaboration partners and customers see the full picture surrounding their kinase inhibitor development programs, ensuring that they select the best possible drug candidates to advance into human trials.â€
KinomeScan employs proprietary active-site dependent competition binding assays to determine how small molecules bind to both intended and unintended kinases. By providing a fast, accurate, uniform and quantitative kinase profile, KinomeScan gives researchers affordable tools to more accurately predict drug candidate side effects and potential new indications.
KinoMAX, with 353 assays, is the world’s largest kinase profiling panel and represents the best choice for drug discovery and compound optimization. KinoMAX is used by several leading pharmaceutical companies for rapid and cost-effective annotation of compound libraries. KinomEDGE contains a select set of 98 kinases and provides an economical means of surveying the human kinome. For custom applications, KinomELECT provides scientists with the ability to hand-pick any subset of kinases from the KinoMAX panel. With all KinomeScan panels, Ambit can deliver screening projects within two weeks.
"With the latest enhancements to KinomeScan, Ambit has again raised the bar for excellence in the kinase profiling arena,†noted Stephen Keane, Ambit’s senior vice president of corporate development. “Our customers will benefit from unsurpassed access to the human kinome, greater flexibility over the design of screening projects, and the best pricing in the industry.â€
KinoMAX, KinomEDGE, and KinomELECT are available immediately. For more information or to request a price quote, please visit http://www.kinomescan.com.
About KinomeScan
KinomeScan is the industry’s most comprehensive high-throughput system for screening small molecule libraries against large numbers of human kinases. KinomeScan employs proprietary active-site dependent competition binding assays to determine how compounds bind to both intended and unintended kinases. In addition to helping keep discovery programs on target, KinomeScan screens can opportunistically identify unanticipated interactions that can expand the therapeutic utility of compounds or serve as advanced starting points for new programs. Ambit’s largest panel, KinoMAX, with 353 assays, is the world’s largest kinase profiling panel.
Ambit's KinomeScan Division provides custom kinase profiling services to drug companies in addition to supporting the company’s separate, internal drug development programs. KinomeScan is a key component of Ambit’s partnerships with Roche, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, Cephalon, and others. The technology has been featured in papers published in Nature Biotechnology and The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
About Ambit Biosciences
Ambit Biosciences is a privately-held biopharmaceutical company engaged in the discovery and development of small molecule kinase inhibitors for the treatment of cancer. The company also markets the industry’s most comprehensive kinase profiling service through its KinomeScan Division. KinomeScan is a proprietary technology designed to screen small molecule libraries against large numbers of human kinases. Ambit has multiple drug candidates in pre-clinical and clinical development, including AC220, a selective class III receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor currently in Phase I for treatment of acute myeloid leukemia. The company has partnerships with Roche, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, Cephalon, and other leading organizations. Ambit has a strong syndicate of investors including Perseus-Soros Biopharmaceutical Fund, Forward Ventures, Avalon Ventures, Genechem, Jov-CMDF, GIMV NV, Roche Venture Fund, and Bristol-Myers Squibb. For more information, please visit www.ambitbio.com.