The Chinese National Center for Drug Screening (NCDS) and Dimerix Bioscience Pty Ltd (Dimerix), a private Australian biotechnology today announced a collaboration to bring the NCDS expertise and infrastructure to enable Dimerix’ proprietary “GPCRHit” heterodimer profiling tool to be applied for high-throughput screening of heterodimer targets.
Almost half of all approved pharmaceuticals act through a receptor class known as G-protein coupled receptors (GPCR) with more than one quarter of the top 200 best selling drugs targeting GPCRs. Until recently these drugs were assumed to act on single, monomeric receptors. Substantial data has now demonstrated that GPCRs can act as complexes, such as GPCR heterodimers. There are currently no commercially available tools to identify compounds that target heterodimers.
Dimerix GPCRHit technology is a patented cell-based method that can identify ligand-dependent activation of GPCR heterodimers. The system has been demonstrated in various GPCR systems to confirm GPCR heterodimer pairs postulated in the scientific literature and to identify novel heterodimers. The National Center for Drug Screening has world-class expertise and infrastructure in developing and implementing high-throughput screening assays at an industrial scale.
Professor Ming-Wei Wang, Director of NCDS, said “our collaboration will establish the first assay system that is capable of high-throughput screening of compound libraries against GPCR heterodimer targets. We are pleased to be collaborating with Dimerix to create the next generation of GPCR drugs.”
Dr James Williams, Dimerix CEO, commented “GPCR heterodimers present a rich opportunity for enhancement of existing GPCR drugs, and for discovery and development of new GPCR drugs. The National Center for Drug Screening brings world-leading capability and infrastructure to an Australian innovation and the synergies realised will result in significant benefits to both organisations.”
About The National Center for Drug Screening, China
The National Center for Drug Screening was created in 1997 through a joint investment of the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Shanghai Municipality Government. It is the only national center in China specialised in screening for new drugs and an essential component in innovative drug research. Over the years, it has demonstrated its leadership through co-operations with leading pharmaceutical companies globally and its own innovative programs include the recent identification of a compound that controls diabetes in mice which may point to more user-friendly treatments for the most common type of human diabetes.
About Dimerix
Dimerix is expanding the potential for new and existing GPCR drugs by deciphering interactions between their receptor targets. Dimerix was spun-out from the University of Western Australia leveraging unique technology developed at the Western Australian Institute for Medical Research (WAIMR).Dimerix is using its GPCRHit assay to identify GPCR interactions (heterodimerisation). This new information, coupled with existing knowledge about marketed drugs and their targets, will be used to develop improved side-effect profiles for existing GPCR drugs and will also allow repositioning of existing drugs to treat different conditions. The new collaboration expands our focus to enable identification of potential drugs for heterodimer targets.Investors in Dimerix include Offspring Ventures Pty Ltd and venture capitalists Foundation Capital and the Murdoch-Westscheme Enterprise Partnership with management support from technology commercialisation company Tessitura Pty Ltd.
Further Information:
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The National Center for Drug Screening, China
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Dimerix Bioscience Pty Ltd
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Dr Ming-Wei Wang, Director, The National Center for Drug Screening
Tel: +86 21 50800598
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Dr James Williams, Chief Executive Officer, Dimerix Bioscience
Tel: +61 (0) 409 050 519
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Address:189 Guo Shou Jing Road Zhangjiang High-Tech Park, 
