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Today, leadXpro AG, one of PARK INNOVAARE’s residents, celebrates its first anniversary and breathtaking development as a company in its first year of operation. Ambitious goals have been set for 2017.
Just a year ago, Professors Michael Hennig, Gebhard Schertler and Rafael Abela co-founded a new biotech company – leadXpro AG – as a spin-off from the Paul Scherrer Institute. Today, leadXpro is a successfully established company that has gone further in its development than the founders could have expected.
leadXpro is dedicated to structure based drug discovery on membrane protein targets. The company is committed to the application of biophysical methods such as X-ray crystallography, single particle cryo-electron microscopy and other ligand binding methods to facilitate the discovery and optimization of lead compounds. The results of its work will “unlock” new targets for structure based drug discovery.
The key achievements of this year were setting up a team, beginning with the lab operations and the establishment of project collaborations with pharmaceutical companies. In addition, in collaboration with PSI, leadXpro scientists have successfully conducted a number of experiments on serial crystallography at SLS synchrotron and free electron laser at Stanford University on membrane protein crystals.
“It was a very successful start. We have achieved much more than I could have expected a year ago”, says Professor Hennig. He has big plans for the company: growth of the team, extension of the lab and office space, new projects and collaborations. Of particular importance for leadXpro is the opening of SwissFEL, the free electron laser at PSI, on 5 December 2016 and the first measurements in 2017. Access to this new facility will make it possible to successfully determine structures of membrane proteins at more physiological temperatures, with even smaller crystals and without X-ray radiation damage.
At PARK INNOVAARE, leadXpro is planning to set up its labs. “PARK INNOVAARE is a great host and is very supportive about driving our business. But most of all, we are looking forward to the new campus”, Professor Henning adds.