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Hybrigenics completes First Protein Interaction Map of Bacterial Pathogen in Nature

January 10, 2001

Free Licence to Access this Protein Interaction Map Available to Academic Researchers on the Web

Paris, France Hybrigenics, the functional proteomics company, announced today the completion of the first protein interaction map of a human bacterial pathogen: Helicobacter pylori. This large-scale protein interaction was generated by HYBRIGENICS, with the Institut Pasteur in Paris, using the Company's industrialised technology. It is outlined in an expanded letter published in today's Nature (The protein-protein interaction map of Helicobacter pylori vol 409, pp 211-215). A free licence to access this new protein interaction map has been made available to academic researchers on the web today (http://pim.hybrigenics.com).

Professor Philippe Kourilsky, President of Institut Pasteur declared: «We are particularly happy and proud to have achieved this significant result that will accelerate the development of new medicines. Our R&D collaboration with Hybrigenics, which was the Institut Pasteur's first spin-off, has proved to be very successful».

Hybrigenics has developed a breakthrough process (quality-controlled and high-throughput) that allows the Company to bridge the gap between human genomics and drug target discovery and validation. This strategy, which is highlighted in today's Nature, is based on the integration of a new generation of the yeast two-hybrid system with leading-edge bioinformatics.

Hybrigenics' automated and industrialised process involves highly complex libraries of protein fragments and differs considerably from other approaches to protein interaction mapping both in terms of its high-throughput and the reliability of the results generated. Hybrigenics' methodology overcomes most of the problems encountered with the classical matrix and other first-generation industrialised approaches to protein interaction studies. More specifically, it dramatically reduces rates of false positives and false negatives. In addition, it allows the determination of a reliability score (PBS®) for every single interaction and the identification of the actual interacting domains (SID®), which permits the assignment to biological pathways of previously unannotated proteins.

An essential key element which led to the successful generation of the large-scale protein interaction map for Helicobacter pylori described in the Nature paper is Hybrigenics' unique PIMRider® software. This proprietary platform optimises the display and the analysis of the protein interaction maps.

Professor Donny Strosberg, Hybrigenics' CEO commenting on today's publication said, " The growing availability of complete DNA sequences for genomes, including the human genome, has made clear that genes, which encode proteins, are only part of the story. The gigantic effort of discovering genes now needs to be followed by an even more comprehensive effort at understanding the function of the corresponding proteins. Hybrigenics' large-scale protein interaction mapping is a major part of such an effort. We are extremely pleased that our work has been now recognised in today's publication in Nature. We are currently applying our industrialised technology to key biological pathways in other pathogens and in human cells and are expanding our pipeline of drug targets candidates in order to accelerate the development of the novel drugs of the future".




Nuffield Council on Bioethics