Discovery Biology
Leadership:
- Shin-Shay Tian, Ph.D., executive director
- Richard Liu, Ph.D., senior director
- Kang Yan, Ph.D., director
The BioDuro biology team is headed by a group of U.S.-educated in vitro biologists with extensive drug discovery experience and a wide range of biological assay and disease area expertise. Our modern laboratory is fully equipped to provide a broad array of services including in vitro biology support for small molecule drug discovery programs, cell line and antibody reagent generation and characterization, Gene2Structure service and target validation.
Small Molecule and Biologic Drug Discovery Service
Primary screening and secondary profiling assay development
- Biochemical assays for purified enzymes (kinases, proteases and other enzymes) and membrane prep or purified receptors (GPCR, NHR, ion channels, cytokine receptors etc.)
- Cell-based assays in immortalized and primary cells
- Assay technologies including luminescence, fluorescence, FP, HTRF, LANCE, AlphaLISA, MSD, FLIPR, LC/MS, RIA, filtration assay, SPA and FACS
- Plate readers including EnVision, Enspire, SpectraMax, FLIPR tetra, Flexstation, TopCount, SPR-2, Accuri C6 Flowcytomer, etc.
- Liquid-handling equipment including Multidrop Dispenser, PlateMate, etc.
Compound, peptide and antibody screening and characterization
- Compound, peptide and antibody library screening
- Medicinal chemistry compound SAR support and secondary assay profiling
- Mechanism-of-action studies
- Mechanism-of-action determination for enzyme inhibitors
- Mechanistic pharmacology for GPCR agonists and antagonists
- On- and off-rate determinations for receptor/ligand (small molecule and peptide) interactions and enzyme/inhibitor interactions
- Characterization of compound, peptide and antibody binding sites
- Preclinical safety assays evaluating hERG binding, phospholipidosis and cytotoxicity
Gene2Structure Service
- Protein expression (E coli, inset cells and mammalian cells) and purification for assay development or crystallization
- X-ray crystallography: data collection, structure determination and modeling
Cell Line Generation and Characterization
Target Validation
Molecular and cellular validation of oncology, metabolic disease and inflammation targets, which could be conducted in collaboration with our experienced pharmacologists to provide genetic or pharmacological in vivo proof-of-concept validation.