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Ubiquigent Limited, a company specialising in providing ubiquitin cell-signalling system drug discovery services and research tools, announced that it has been awarded a new grant from Innovate UK as part of its Biomedical Catalyst 2016 Feasibility Study Competition. 

The project, entitled “Novel chemical libraries to unlock the potential of deubiquitylase (DUB) enzyme drug discovery”, will make it easier for pharmaceutical researchers to target DUB enzymes in the search for new medicines.

The ubiquitin system defines a cascade of proteins that control regulated protein turnover, amongst other functions.  The system’s key role in the regulation of the majority (if not all) cellular proteins and processes means that it presents a deep array of potential drug targets – currently largely untapped by the pharma industry – addressing multiple therapeutic areas. This includes many that are currently proving challenging, such as dementia and cancer, as well as a range of metabolic diseases.

Ubiquigent is a world-leading provider of biological assay services in this newly emerging space of ubiquitin-system drug discovery, where the main rate limiting factor is the availability of small molecule libraries to kick-start early drug development. With the help of this grant, Ubiquigent will develop additional, highly-targeted, small molecule libraries focussing on the DUB enzyme subfamily, thereby further unlocking their potential for targeting by the pharmaceutical industry.

Ubiquigent’s Executive Chairman, Dr Mark Treherne, commented: "Following on from the launch of DUBtarget™-001, our first compound library, developed in collaboration with the Drug Discovery Unit at the University of Dundee, this timely award from Innovate UK will allow Ubiquigent to develop a series of further libraries. Our expanding DUBtarget™ ‎portfolio will enable an increasing number of global companies to explore a richer, more diverse chemical space in their search for novel DUB enzyme inhibitors."

The grant is expected to be worth £133k over a twelve-month period, commencing in January 2017. Further information on the competition can be found by visiting bit.ly/biomedcat

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