FEI Partners with Five Pharmaceutical Companies, the Medical Research Council and the University of Cambridge to form Cryo-E...
April 04 2016 - 6:05AM
FEI (NASDAQ:FEIC) has partnered with five pharmaceutical companies:
Astex Pharmaceuticals, AstraZeneca, GlaxoSmithKline, Heptares
Therapeutics, and UCB; the Medical Research Council Laboratory of
Molecular Biology (MRC-LMB); and the University of Cambridge’s
Nanoscience Centre, to form the “Cambridge Pharmaceutical Cryo-EM
Consortium,” which is the first of its kind worldwide. As part of
the three-year agreement, FEI will provide sample preparation and
data collection services on a Titan Krios™ cryo-transmission
electron microscope (cryo-EM) to the consortium companies for
early-stage drug discovery research.
The five companies involved in the consortium will share access
to the microscope with colleagues from the MRC-LMB and the
University of Cambridge in return for expert guidance on the use of
cryo-EM technology. FEI’s Titan Krios will be installed at the
Nanoscience Centre in May.
Richard Henderson, pioneer in the field of cryo-EM at MRC-LMB,
states, "It is delightful to know that the development of cryo-EM,
which many people have worked on for many years, has now reached
mainstream structural biology. It is particularly satisfying that
pharmaceutical companies are keen to evaluate the approach for drug
development."
Prof. Sir Mark Welland, director of the Nanoscience
Centre, said, “This is a great opportunity for researchers across
the University to access a state-of-the-art microscope.”
Cryo-EM has quickly become one of the most important techniques
used by structural biologists today to obtain molecular-scale
three-dimensional (3D) information about protein structures. When
combined with traditional methods for structure determination, such
as x-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic resonance
spectroscopy, the resulting models can reveal the structure of
complex, dynamic molecular assemblies down to the scale of
individual atoms. The consortium’s Titan Krios will use the Relion
software package, developed by Sjors Scheres at MRC-LMB, to process
the image data into a visual 3D model that helps researchers see
and understand the structure and function of the protein.
“Cryo-EM 3D models allow us to see and understand the workings
of protein-based molecular machines that we could not analyze
before because they were too large and complex or were resistant to
the preparations required for other techniques,” states Peter
Fruhstorfer, vice president and general manager of the Life
Sciences business, FEI. “The technique was rapidly adopted by
leading academic researchers and is now finding its way into early
stage discovery and development in the pharmaceutical
industry.”
Fruhstorfer adds, “In addition to installing the Titan Krios
cryo-EM system, our contribution to the consortium includes
providing an application scientist that will work with the
participating companies to ensure a smooth workflow throughout,
from sample preparation to data collection and data processing,
with a special focus on creating a standardized and robust
single-particle analysis workflow.”
For more information about cryo-EM and the Cambridge
Pharmaceutical Cryo-EM Consortium, contact FEI at
contactus@fei.com.
About FEIFEI Company (Nasdaq:FEIC) designs,
manufactures and supports a broad range of high-performance
microscopy workflow solutions that provide images and answers at
the micro-, nano- and picometer scales. Its innovation and
leadership enable customers in industry and science to increase
productivity and make breakthrough discoveries. Headquartered in
Hillsboro, Ore., USA, FEI has over 2,800 employees and sales and
service operations in more than 50 countries around the world. More
information can be found at: www.fei.com.
About the Cambridge University Nanoscience
CentreThe Nanoscience Centre provides open access to over
300 researchers from a variety of University Departments to the
nanofabrication and characterisation facilities housed in a
combination of Clean Rooms and low noise laboratories. The main
activity in the building is making individual devices or structures
which are only a few nanometres in size and then measuring how they
work. Office space is primarily home to the Department of
Engineering's Nanoscience Group, technical and administrative staff
and members of other research groups who require long term access
to facilities. www.nanoscience.cam.ac.uk
FEI Safe Harbor Statement This news release
contains forward-looking statements that include statements
regarding the performance capabilities and benefits of the Titan
Krios TEM and cryo-EM solution. Factors that could affect these
forward-looking statements include but are not limited to our
ability to manufacture, ship, deliver and install the tools,
solutions or software as expected; failure of the product or
technology to perform as expected; unexpected technology problems
and challenges; changes to the technology; the inability of FEI,
its suppliers or project partners to make the technological
advances required for the technology to achieve anticipated
results; and the inability of the customer to deploy the tools or
develop and deploy the expected new applications. Please also refer
to our Form 10-K, Forms 10-Q, Forms 8-K and other filings with the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for additional information
on these factors and other factors that could cause actual results
to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. FEI
assumes no duty to update forward-looking statements.
For more information contact:
Sandy Fewkes (media contact)
MindWrite Communications, Inc.
+1 408 224 4024
sandy@mind-write.com
FEI
Jason Willey (investors and analysts)
Sr. Director, Investor Relations & Corporate Development
+1 503 726 2533
jason.willey@fei.com
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