Is there is a key piece of R&D, validation or analysis required for your client / research project but your resources are currently committed to other projects? Do you need access to analytical equipment that you do not have? You are willing to fund this work, but the problem is that you do not have access to equipment or skill sets. Contract Research in Biotech NUI Maynooth can provide the following equipment and skill sets: Pharmaceutical & Medicinal Chemistry Dissolution, Friability, Hardness, Coulometry. Purification of complex synthetic molecules: preparative chromatography, automated flash chromatography, HPLC. Structural characterization of complex synthetic molecules: ESI- LC-MS, NMR, IR, UV elemental analysis. Solution and solid phase synthesis. Peptide and Oligonucleotide synthesis. Specialist synthesis equipment (Schlenk line, microwave synthesiser). Biological Assays and Analysis Microbiological culture and identification. Cell culture, Biochemical assays. Atomic Absorption. Molecular: PCR, qpcr. Mass spectrometry, Tandem mass spectrometry, MALDI-ToF MS, shotgun proteomics. Protein purification. Native or recombinant protein purification. Protein characterisation, immunological, SDS-PAGE, 2D-PAGE, ELISA, activity analysis. Delivery of drugs and biologics (eg. DNA, sirna, peptides) directly into cells in vitro including hard to transfect cells.
You may be engaged in an R&D programme, developing products / processes. You are in a position to provide a portion of the resources and funding required but need access to additional expertise and skills to gain additional competitive advantage. Collaborative Research in Biotech NUI Maynooth can provide the following expertise and skill sets: Protein Biology Measure, assess and understand the condensation of therapeutic proteins (primarily aggregation) produced in the bioprocess industry. Pathogenesis of protein condensation diseases e.g cataract, Alzheimer s and Parkinson s diseases. Peptide synthesis and conjugation strategies for peptides and oligonucleotides. Synthesis and purification of carbohydrate derivatives (like glycolipids, glycopeptides). Design and Synthesis of Novel Therapeutics and Assay Development Development of novel systems for evaluating drug toxicity and interaction of fungi with the host immune response. Analysis of drug-pathogen interactions. Development and mode of action of novel metal based drugs. Computational chemistry, rational drug design, including hit discovery and lead optimization. Membrane bioinformatics. In vitro and in vivo systems for drug screening. Binding assays, pull down assays, FRET assays, cellular assays. Interaction technologies such as 2-Hybrid and in-vitro systems. Establishment of novel biomarkers.
During the course of growing your business you may identify an opportunity or idea for a product /process that has real commercial potential. However, Product X is not on your current product roadmap and you do not have the time or resource to develop it. Opportunity Development in Biotech We propose a partnership whereby you provide the opportunity idea for Product X, and NUI Maynooth will use its expertise and skill sets, taking advice and validation from you, to develop the new opportunity. As well as the skills and expertise outlined in our Contract Research and Collaborative Research pamphlets, below are other skills, platforms and expertise at NUI Maynooth. Physical Chemistry of Biomolecules Measure, assess and understand the condensation of therapeutic proteins (primarily aggregation) produced in the bioprocess industry. Assessment of sugars as additives to protein formulations for the inhibition of protein aggregation. Optical Microscopy (Phase Contrast, Polarisation and Fluorescence). Static and Dynamic Light Scattering.
RECOMBINANT PROTEIN EXPRESSION PROTEIN DISCOVERY PROTEIN CHARACTERISATION AND STABILISATION TRANSLATIONAL PROTEOMICS ENZYMES AS BIOCATALYSTS DRUG TARGET IDENTIFICATION IMMUNOASSAY DEVELOPMENT AND IMMUNOLOGICAL ANALYSIS Translational Proteomics Novel protein discovery by data mining of genomes Genome sequencing, gene prediction, in silico cdna database assembly, bioinformatics Recombinant protein expression and characterisation Yeast, E. coli, baculovirus or plant expression systems. Site-directed mutagenesis. Protein mass spectrometry Tandem mass spectrometry, MALDI-ToF MS, shotgun proteomics. Protein purification Native or recombinant protein purification. Protein characterisation Immunological, SDS-PAGE, 2D-PAGE, ELISA, activity analysis. Protein modification Conjugation, immunogen synthesis, biotinylation, nucleic acid labelling. Immunoassay development Antisera generation, assay validation and component stabilisation
CASE STUDIES Development of an in-vitro diagnostic assay for Haptoglobin with Tridelta Development Limited A Collaborative research project between the Department of Biology and Tridelta Development Limited (www.trideltaltd.com) resulted in the development of an automated in vitro diagnostic assay for Haptoglobin. This multi-species detection system for inflammation, which can quantitate the level of the Haptoglobin biomarker in serum and plasma, is marketed under the brand name Phase and is sold world-wide. The project was supported by an Enterprise Ireland Innovation Partnership. A subsequent collaborative research programme led to the development of a canine C-reactive protein detection system and this product was supported by patent application filing and joint publication in Analytical Biochemistry. Mr Kieran Walshe, former Technical Director with Tridelta Development Limited, enthusiastically noted that the research link with NUI Maynooth provided access to valuable know-how and equipment to facilitate product development. Development of biosensors for drugs of abuse detection with Biosensia Limited Biosensia Limited (www.biosensia.com) engaged in a number of research contracts with NUI Maynooth to carry out essential research, necessary for the development of biosensors for drugs of abuse detection. Enterprise Ireland played a major role in funding the late-stage developmental work involved in this research programme. In addition to accessing bioconjugation and assay development expertise at the Department of Biology, data generated by the academic researchers helped Biosensia to secure funding to advance new product development. Dr Jim Walsh, the Executive Chairman of Biosensia, speaks very positively about the link with NUI Maynooth. He commented that the ready access to our knowledge, equipment infrastructure, and cando approach, were key factors in advancing his company s technology platform. Evaluating the potency of a beerline cleaning and sterilising agent with Qualflow Ltd Qualflow Ltd. (www.qualflow.com) developed a novel cleaning and sterilizing agent for the removal of biofilms from beers lines and assessed its efficacy in collaboration with the Department of Biology, NUI Maynooth. The efficacy of the novel cleaning agent was assessed using lines heavily contaminated with biofilm. The results demonstrated that the Qualflow cleaning agent was more effective than the existing agents used commercially and additionally the lines cleaned with their agent were less susceptible to re-growth of biofilm. The project also demonstrated that cleaning lines with this agent every six weeks was sufficient, thus reducing the frequency of cleaning.