CPGR Hits Major Milestone in Drug Toxicology Study with SimuGen

CPGR (CT, South Africa) announces that it has achieved a major milestone in a research project contracted by SimuGen Asia Sdn. Bhd. (KL, Malaysia), successfully completing a series of drug toxicity screens in cultured human liver cells (HepaRG) and on Affymetrix Gene ST Arrays as part of the development of an in vitro dose-response model of human toxicity. The South African based Centre is now pressing ahead with a large-scale qPCR study to achieve far greater sensitivity and scalability than currently being generated in similar RNA signature biomarker development projects.

The CPGR was founded in 2006 as part of a government initiative to provide scientists in South Africa with state-of-the-art analytical services, technical expertise, project support and collaborative research capabilities in the fields of genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and bioinformatics. The Centre has a particular interest in translational research and advancing scientific findings from the bench to the market, and ultimately to boost the development of a thriving biotech economy in South Africa. As part of these efforts one of the organization’s aims is to create a track record of delivery in integrated R&D projects in areas such as drug development, biomarkers and agribiotech.

“At this stage of the project we are quite pleased to see that we have successfully managed to combine complex cell lines with state-of-the art biological assays and our existing genomic platforms”, said Reinhard Hiller, Managing Director of the CPGR. “In doing so we have come one step closer to creating a portfolio of biological and ”omics” workflows that can be used to boost drug development in a novel information-rich manner. This will help position us as a destination for outsourcing R&D projects in the international drug development arena, and it will enhance the capacity to drive innovation in this field in South Africa.”

Said Dr Quin Wills, CSO of SimuGen, “We believe that the greatest pharmacogenomics gains over the next few years are to be had within early stage drug discovery. This means the coming together of the best genomic modeling, genomic technologies and high throughput biological models. We are pleased that the work with CPGR will now enable SimuGen to begin releasing its HT-Stream software over the coming months to select Beta users who would like to try it for free before full market release."