Well they’ve been keeping us in the loop about something to do with biosensor development since July 2013. Here’s some outtakes from various announcements. Apologies that it’s a bit long. Bold emphasis is mine. Note the last mention was in last month’s Annual Report. It said that PYC will be progressing its collaboration with the IMB to develop and commercialise Phylomer-based technologies to generate diagnostics.
4 July, 2013
Phylogica Ltd, a leading Australian peptide drug discovery company, announced today that it will receive a Linkage Grant from the Australian Research Council (ARC) to collaborate with scientists at The University of Queensland’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB)….
Phylogica and its collaborators at the IMB will exploit the unique structural diversity of Phylogica’s Phylomer libraries for biomarker discovery. The partners will jointly develop a single biosensor, displaying tens of thousands of synthetic Phylomers in a parallel format for screening in high throughput. A universal Phylomer array based on this platform will allow rapid identification of unique signatures for biomarker discovery from any biological sample. Such biomarker signatures may subsequently be used to develop diagnostic tests and to profile patients and their responses to particular treatments.
The ultimate goal of the collaboration is the construction of a universal specificity Phylomer chip. This low-cost consumable device will allow the identification of peptide probes that are specific for any target biomolecule, in a matter of minutes….
Phylogica’s CEO Dr Paul Watt said: “We are delighted to be working with the IMB team at The University of Queensland because of their complementary expertise. Professor Kirill Alexandrov and Dr Yann Gambin are experts in the application of cutting edge microfluidics and fluorescence detection technologies, in combination with high-throughput and high-content protein characterisation. It is this technological synergy that led us to choose the IMB as our partner for the project. This world-class team has extensive experience of working with industry to achieve commercial objectives.”
Dr Gambin commented: “We are looking forward to working with Phylogica on this exciting opportunity to commercialise such a unique product. The diversity of the Phylomer platform offers powerful advantages for development of a universal peptide-based biosensor. The potential applications of this technology are vast in healthcare, industrial and agricultural markets.”
Professor Kirill Alexandrov said: “Phylogica is a highly innovative biotech company with substantial expertise in harnessing biodiversity for identification of bioactive peptides. By combining Phylogica’s platform with our novel technologies for recombinant peptide production and analysis, we aim to accelerate the development of novel diagnostic applications.”
2 October, 2013
Phylogica Ltd, a leading Australian peptide drug discovery company, announces the allowance of its US patent application for synthetic Phylomer libraries.
This core patent (designated USSN 11/672,419) covers generic methods of designing synthetic Phylomer peptide libraries based on the identification of parts of natural proteins, which are predicted to form structures independently when isolated from the parent protein from which they are derived. The patent also contains methods for maximising the diversity of such structures represented in the library….
The new technology has direct application to Phylogica’s existing alliances, include the design of ‘universal biosensor arrays’ (in collaboration with University of Queensland)
25 November, 2014
Phylogica Ltd, a leading Australian peptide drug discovery company, announces the allowance of its European patent application for synthetic Phylomer libraries…
The ability to condense or miniaturise a synthetic Phylomer library also makes them ideal for incorporation into next generation micro-sensors in diagnostics. For example, a synthetic Phylomer library could be used as a universal-biosensor to screen patient samples from blood, urine or saliva to detect diseases such as diabetes, cancer or various infections. When samples come into contact with the sensor they generate a ‘binding signature’ characteristic of a particular disease thus enabling rapid diagnosis.
Importantly, biosensors are recognised as being critical to the future of personalised medicine. Here, the binding signature generated by a biosensor would be used not just for diagnosis but also to design a course of treatment tailored specifically for the patient and to monitor the response to therapy.
Dr Richard Hopkins, Phylogica’s CEO commented, “This patent milestone is another major barrier-to-entry to potential competitors and ensures Phylogica has a stake-hold in the rapidly growing fields of diagnostics and personalised medicine. We see these areas as offering strong commercial opportunities as we develop these technologies.”
Phylogica’s CSO Dr Paul Watt added, “This patent supports the highly productive ARC-funded collaboration we have with the University of Queensland that is developing next generation biosensors. We have made solid progress towards validating the synthetic Phylomer library concept and look forward to reporting on this over the coming months.”
September, 2015 (Research position advertised by IMB)
The primary purpose of this position is to work on a joint project between Molecular Warehouse Ltd and the Prof. Kirill Alexandrov’s group at the Institute of Molecular Bioscience. The collaborative team aims to develop next generation of electrochemical biosensors for the use in Point-of-Care diagnostics. The collaboration is based on a range of technologies developed in the Alexandrov’s lab that are now being commercialised by Molecular Warehouse Ltd.The successful applicants will be required to combine protein structure analysis engineering and chemistry to develop new biosensors to chosen biomarkers
23 October, 2015
Upcoming milestones/achievements include: Collaborations will be progressed with the University of Queensland to develop and commercialise Phylomer based technologies to generate macrocyclic peptides, diagnostic platforms and novel cancer therapies.
PYC Price at posting:
1.7¢ Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
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