Next Generation Ion Channels

Cell-based Assays: Today’s drug discovery sheds bright light on cell-based assays which play a major role in target identification and drug screening projects. The central feature of this screening concept is the cell that is used as expression system for the production of relevant target protein.

Stable Cell Lines: The design of ion channel cell lines that stably express the target of interest is time-consuming and labour-intensive due to the sophisticated nature of related research. Once established, such cell systems are best suited for the High Throughput Screening (HTS) of large compound libraries to identify new molecules with therapeutic activity.

High level Expression: A good number of ion channels are barely accessible with traditional genetic engineering. In addition, many targets are addicted to the parallel expression of accessory subunits to form native ion channel proteins. A critical measure for efficient ion channel screening, however, is the level of target expression which directly accounts for the analytical signal in the functional assay.

ChanClone™: In collaboration with two academic partners Genionics developes a novel technology enabling the ultra-fast production of ion channel cell lines. Since our operational launch we already established our first and second generation cloning technology that was termed ChanClone™ to highlight our focus on ion channels. The ChanClone™ technology will be further optimized throughout the upcoming two years to bring forward new therapeutic concepts in the area of ion channel diseases.