The Aargau-based biotech start-up leadXpro is to join forces in future with the Danish pharma group Lundbeck to conduct research into new active ingredients for drugs. According to a press release, the agreement covers research into several small molecule projects for “structure-based drug discovery methods for membrane protein targets”. Founded in 2015, leadXpro AG is a leading research company specializing in membrane proteins as biological drug targets. The company works closely with the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) and the Center for Cellular Imaging and Nano Analytics (C-CINA) at the University of Basel.
“Thanks to our unique in-house developed technologies we are able to generate membrane proteins with great potential to deliver high resolution structural data either by x-ray crystallography or cryo-electron microscopy”, explains Wassim Abdul Rahman, project leader at leadXpro. “We are excited to join efforts with Lundbeck to tackle challenging drug targets with great therapeutic interest”.
According to David Rodríguez Díaz, Scientific Responsible at Lundbeck, his company plans to continue delivering drugs “targeting membrane proteins as excellent therapeutics for brain diseases”. Moreover, Rodríguez Díaz praised the scientific and technological competencies of leadXpro in providing access to x-ray-free electron laser sources and cryo-EM experiments, underlining how this aligns perfectly with Lundbeck’s requirements in this area.
