CRO

NovAliX and Max Planck Institute partner on cryo-EM-driven drug discovery

NovAliX has entered into a long-term partnership with the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences to translate basic science research into new therapies, the preclinical CRO announced March 5. 

“It is more costly and more risky than ever before to identify and bring new medicines to market,” NovAliX CEO Denis Zeyer said in a press release. “The current model is unsustainable. Bringing academic research deeper into the process can only increase the odds of success for therapeutic opportunities.” 

The new partnership will see the MPI for Multidisciplinary Sciences—a Göttingen, Germany-based institution that’s one of many institutions operated by the independent scientific research nonprofit Max Planck Society—collaborate with NovAliX to leverage cryogenic electron microscopy, or cryo-EM, for drug discovery. NovAliX has its own dedicated cryo-EM facilities, which it co-developed with Thermo Fisher Scientific. 

Max Planck researchers began working in January at NovAliX’s research center in Strasbourg, France, where they’re developing oncology and “anti-infective” projects, according to the release.