South Africa’s CPGR Turns to Cell-Culture Based Screening to Advance Drug Discovery and Development
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CPGR (CT, South Africa) has announced that it has entered into an agreement with SimuGen (KL, Malaysia), involving the development of novel biomarker assays for the prediction of toxicity of existing and novel drug compounds.
The CPGR was founded in 2006 as part of a government initiative to provide scientists in South Africa with analytical services, technical expertise, project support and collaborative research capabilities in the genomics and proteomics arena.
The organization has a particular interest in translational research and advancing scientific findings from the bench to the clinic, including a focus on tackling pressing health needs in Africa. Today, CPGR is becoming a global biotech player, venturing into fields such as molecular diagnostics and drug discovery.
“We realized very early in our activities the potential value in a number of fields of combining our information-rich analytical capabilities with innovative cell culture models” said Reinhard Hiller, Ph.D., Managing Director of the CPGR.
“The work we will do with Simugen, aimed at improving the ability to develop novel, safe drugs, fits perfectly into our vision of creating cutting-edge ex-vivo drug screening workflows that make full use of our genomic & proteomic platforms,” Hiller said.
Said Dr Quin Wills, CSO of SimuGen, “We believe that the greatest pharmacogenomics gains over the next few years are to be had within early stage drug discovery. This means the coming together of the best genomic modeling, genomic technologies and high throughput biological models. We are pleased to be working with a team that has the same vision for high quality science that can really help facilitate a compound go/no go decision.”
The CPGR was founded in 2006 as part of a government initiative to provide scientists in South Africa with analytical services, technical expertise, project support and collaborative research capabilities in the genomics and proteomics arena.
The organization has a particular interest in translational research and advancing scientific findings from the bench to the clinic, including a focus on tackling pressing health needs in Africa. Today, CPGR is becoming a global biotech player, venturing into fields such as molecular diagnostics and drug discovery.
“We realized very early in our activities the potential value in a number of fields of combining our information-rich analytical capabilities with innovative cell culture models” said Reinhard Hiller, Ph.D., Managing Director of the CPGR.
“The work we will do with Simugen, aimed at improving the ability to develop novel, safe drugs, fits perfectly into our vision of creating cutting-edge ex-vivo drug screening workflows that make full use of our genomic & proteomic platforms,” Hiller said.
Said Dr Quin Wills, CSO of SimuGen, “We believe that the greatest pharmacogenomics gains over the next few years are to be had within early stage drug discovery. This means the coming together of the best genomic modeling, genomic technologies and high throughput biological models. We are pleased to be working with a team that has the same vision for high quality science that can really help facilitate a compound go/no go decision.”
