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BIOSEEK TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW DOCUMENT
Technology Platform

BioMAP® Systems are complex human primary cell-based assay systems that are engineered to capture the biological complexity of disease states to better represent in vivo biology. In these systems, combinations of primary cell types are simultaneously activated in complex environments, replicating intricate cell and pathway interactions normally found in disease physiology. In this way, our technology is fundamentally different from standard cell-based assays, which are designed to isolate individual pathways and minimize biological complexity.

Compounds are profiled in BioMAP® Systems by measuring optimized sets of protein readouts that represent the biology of disease areas of interest. Depending on the mechanism of action, compounds induce specific changes in expression of protein readouts, giving a specific BioMAP® profile. The profiles are stored in the company's database, and analyzed using our proprietary statistical and modeling algorithms.

In the discovery process, profiles of newly identified leads are compared to BioMAP® profiles of known therapeutics (benchmarking) to identify compounds that exhibit desired anti-inflammatory activity and minimal potential for side effects.


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Even though highly complex, BioMAP® Systems are automated and of sufficient throughput to provide rapid discovery of high-quality leads.

Publications:

Can cell systems biology rescue drug discovery? Butcher, EC Nat Rev Drug Discov. 2005 Jun;4(6):461-7.

Approaches to the analysis of cell signaling networks and their application in drug discovery. Berg EL, Hytopoulos E, Plavec I, Kunkel EJ. Curr Opin Drug Discov Devel. 2005 Jan;8(1):107-14.

Systems biology in drug discovery.[pdf] Butcher EC, Berg EL, Kunkel EJ. Nature Biotechnol. 2004 Oct;22(10):1253-9.

Rapid structure-activity and selectivity analysis of kinase inhibitors by BioMAP analysis in complex human primary cell-based models. Kunkel EJ, Plavec I, Nguyen D, Melrose J, Rosler ES, Kao LT, Wang Y, Hytopoulos E, Bishop AC, Bateman R, Shokat KM, Butcher EC, Berg EL. Assay Drug Dev Technol. 2004 Aug;2(4):431-41.

An integrative biology approach for analysis of drug action in models of human vascular inflammation. Kunkel EJ, Dea M, Ebens A, Hytopoulos E, Melrose J, Nguyen D, Ota KS, Plavec I, Wang Y, Watson SR, Butcher EC, Berg EL. FASEB J. 2004 Aug;18(11):1279-81. Epub 2004 Jun 18.

Method for analyzing signaling networks in complex cellular systems. Plavec I, Sirenko O, Privat S, Wang Y, Dajee M, Melrose J, Nakao B, Hytopoulos E, Berg EL, Butcher EC. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2004 Feb 3;101(5):1223-8. Epub 2004 Jan 26.