Product News: PerkinElmer Announces Expansion of First-in-Class Epigenetic Research Tools for Drug Discovery

At the 17th annual Society for Biomolecular Sciences 2011 conference in Orlando, PerkinElmer, Inc., a global leader focused on the health and safety of people and the environment, today announced the expansion of its epigenetic detection reagents portfolio specifically validated for drug discovery and life sciences research.

“The development of novel therapies aimed at epigenetic drug targets has intensified over the last several years. PerkinElmer is excited to be in the forefront of this research by introducing a wide range of screening reagents that focus on assay selectivity, sensitivity and speed, factors which researchers indicate are critical requirements,” said Martina Bielefeld-Sévigny, Ph.D., vice president and general manager, Drug Discovery and Research Reagent Solutions, Bio-discovery, PerkinElmer.

She added, “It is clear that epigenetic modification plays a key role in cell differentiation and development, as well as in the pathology of cancer and several other disorders. PerkinElmer is committed to providing rapid advances for both academia and the pharmaceutical industry, offering robust enabling tools to work with these important targets.”

Epigenetics is the study of changes in gene activity that are driven by chemical and enzymatic modifications of the DNA and proteins in chromosomes. Epigenetic marks can occur due to environmental factors such as diet, stress or even prenatal care, but can also be heritable.

PerkinElmer’s screening assays for epigenetics are built upon its proprietary homogeneous assay platforms, LANCE®Ultra detection assays for peptide substrates and AlphaLISA® detection assays for both peptide or full-length proteins. Both platforms are no-wash, non-radioactive , antibody-based technologies, that offer a unique combination of specificity, sensitivity, dynamic range and throughput. All are validated for mark specificity, providing the sensitivity to work with low substrate and enzyme concentrations, generating robust and highly reproducible assay signals.

PerkinElmer’s epigenetic and post-translational screening tools now cover nine different histone marks as well as p53, with more than 15 validated enzyme assays to help researchers discover novel drug compounds directed against several epigenetic enzymes, such as histone methyltransferases (HMTs), demethylases (HDMs), acetyltransferases (HATs) and deacetylases (HDACs).

For more information please visit, PerkinElmer at booth number 701 or visit the company article page.