BioWorld International Correspondent

PARIS - Hybrigenics, a Paris-based functional proteomics company, has teamed up with the Institut Curie, a private medical research foundation specialized in breast cancer research and treatment, to create a joint research facility for the development of cancer therapies.

Hybrigenics and the Institut Curie already are engaged in a long-term collaboration aimed at unraveling the mechanisms of cell development and the proliferation of cancer cells in humans, and the opening of this laboratory is a key step in the implementation of that research program.

Located at the Institut Curie in Paris, the new facility will focus on exploring and validating critical protein pathways involved in cancer by mapping cellular protein interactions in the model organism Drosophilia melanogaster (the fruit fly) and in human cells. Several genes and corresponding proteins in Drosophilia melanogaster have been found by Institut Curie researchers to be key components of metabolic and signaling pathways involved in cell development and cellular proliferation.

The head of the institute's research department, Daniel Louvard, said "the mapping of cellular protein interactions in the fruit fly and their comparison with human cells is a very promising research field in oncology."

Starting from selected proteins in D. melanogaster and corresponding human homologues, Hybrigenics will apply its high-throughput protein interaction mapping (PIM) technology to explore and compare protein-protein interaction pathways. It expects the analysis of the relevant pathways in both organisms' proteomes to generate functional information and allow simultaneous identification of corresponding pathways in human cells. Because it prioritizes mapped interactions according to their biological relevance and pinpoints the specific protein domains involved in those interactions, Hybrigenics' technology makes it possible to select potential targets for the development of new therapies. Both Hybrigenics and the Institut Curie will be involved in the subsequent biological validation of targets arising from their joint research.

In April the Institut Curie signed a collaboration agreement with another Paris-based biotechnology company, ExonHit Therapeutics SA, for the development and validation of the latter's cancer diagnostic/prognostic tool Proof-Hit.