In the news
Sep. 28th, 2010 04:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snousleEnvoy Therapeutics, the Florida company I've been working for, is in the news concerning their collaboration with Scripps Research Institute to develop new treatments for Parkinsons disease:
Using its proprietary bacTRAP technology, Envoy’s scientists have identified a protein that is selectively expressed in a specific cell type within the striatum, an area of the basal ganglia deep inside the brain that plays an important role in planning and modulating movement. They believe that modulating this protein with a small-molecule drug will more precisely affect specific brain cells, achieving the efficacy of L-DOPA without the side effects.
“Envoy’s bacTRAP technology overcomes this problem by allowing for the expression of potential drug target proteins to be compared across multiple co-localized cell types,” Hitchcock says. “In this case, all the potential drug targets in D2 neurons in the striatum have been compared across D1 and many other neuron-types. This approach has revealed a novel target, highly enriched in D2 expressing striatal neurons.”
Using its proprietary bacTRAP technology, Envoy’s scientists have identified a protein that is selectively expressed in a specific cell type within the striatum, an area of the basal ganglia deep inside the brain that plays an important role in planning and modulating movement. They believe that modulating this protein with a small-molecule drug will more precisely affect specific brain cells, achieving the efficacy of L-DOPA without the side effects.
“Envoy’s bacTRAP technology overcomes this problem by allowing for the expression of potential drug target proteins to be compared across multiple co-localized cell types,” Hitchcock says. “In this case, all the potential drug targets in D2 neurons in the striatum have been compared across D1 and many other neuron-types. This approach has revealed a novel target, highly enriched in D2 expressing striatal neurons.”
