ActiveSight, provider of protein crystallography services, has expanded their portfolio of "ready-to-go" proteins to include three new members: the human kinase Aurora-A, the nuclear hormone receptor FXR, and the bacterial enzyme DNA Gyrase B.

The new targets cover a variety of therapeutic areas. Aurora-A is an oncogenic serine/threonine kinase with a key role in cell division. Consequently, Aurora is the target of a number of active drug discovery programmes. FXR, a bile acid sensor and regulator of bile acid homeostasis, is an emerging target with therapeutic potential for the modulation of cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Gyrase B, the target of existing quinolone and coumarin antibiotics, is the subject of active research to find novel inhibitors.

"Our Protein Portfolio represents an increasingly valuable resource for drug development. Medicinal chemists can submit their lead compounds and receive important structural information within weeks," states Ronald V. Swanson, ActiveSight CSO. "The Protein Portfolio allows companies without internal structural biology resources to rapidly determine specific information about how their molecules bind, information that translates directly into accelerating the design of improved chemical entities," he added.

ActiveSight plans to add additional kinases, nuclear hormone receptors, and proteases to the Protein Portfolio which already includes human Hsp90 and Fructose-1, 6-bisphosphatase.