Heptares Founder Richard Henderson Receives Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2017 for Pioneering Work in cryo-EM for Visualising Biol...
05 Ottobre 2017 - 11:50AM
Business Wire
Heptares Therapeutics (“Heptares”), a wholly owned subsidiary of
Sosei Group Corporation (“Sosei”; TOKYO Mothers Index: 4565), is
delighted that one of its founders, Richard Henderson (MRC
Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK), was awarded the
Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2017 together with Jacques Dubochet
(University of Lausanne, Switzerland) and Joachim Frank (Columbia
University, New York, USA) "for developing cryo-electron microscopy
for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in
solution."
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the full release here:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20171005005522/en/
Cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) is a technique for
determining three-dimensional information about protein structures
at the molecular level. Along with traditional methods for
structure determination, such as x-ray crystallography and nuclear
magnetic resonance spectroscopy, cryo-EM can reveal the structure
of complex molecular assemblies to near atomic level. Detailed
information, such as this, is expected to improve understanding of
the structure and function of proteins under investigation, and
thereby advance the design of new drugs targeting specific
proteins. Heptares is applying the techniques of cryo-EM to study G
protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) protein complexes, the insights
from which are helping to advance the discovery of potential new
medicines.
Malcolm Weir, CEO and co-founder Heptares, said: “We are
delighted that Richard has received this most prestigious of
awards. It is very well deserved and justified recognition of his
outstanding contribution to science as a true pioneer of structural
biology. His work on membrane protein structure in particular
provided the inspiration and scientific foundation for Heptares’
work on GPCR structure-based drug design, and we continue to
benefit enormously from his contributions. We would like to offer
Richard and his fellow prize winners our warmest congratulations
for this fantastic achievement.”
Richard Henderson co-founded Heptares Therapeutics with Malcolm
Weir, Fiona Marshall and Chris Tate in 2007.
A link to the press release from the Royal Swedish Academy of
Sciences can be found by clicking here.
About Heptares Therapeutics
Heptares is a clinical-stage company creating transformative
medicines targeting G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), a
superfamily of 375 receptors linked to a wide range of human
diseases. Heptares’ proprietary StaR® technology and
structure-based drug design (SBDD) capabilities enable us to
engineer and develop drugs for highly validated, yet historically
undruggable or challenging GPCRs. Using this approach, we are
building an exciting pipeline of new medicines (small molecules and
biologics) with the potential to transform the treatment of
Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, cancer immune-oncology,
migraine, addiction, metabolic disease and other indications. We
have partnerships for our novel candidates and technologies with
leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including
Allergan, AstraZeneca, Daiichi Sankyo, Kymab, MorphoSys,
Peptidream, Pfizer and Teva.
Heptares is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sosei Group
Corporation. For more information, please visit www.heptares.com
and www.sosei.com/en/.
HEPTARES is a registered trademark in the EU, Switzerland, US
and Japan;StaR® is a registered trademark in the EU and Japan.
About Sosei
Sosei is a biopharmaceutical company originating from Japan but
with global presence. Sosei’s primary business model is based on
identifying novel and/or differentiated product assets or
technology platforms and, through supporting these in preclinical
and clinical development and establishing commercial partnerships,
advancing new medicines to patients worldwide. For more information
about Sosei, please visit www.sosei.com/en/.
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Citigate Dewe RogersonMark Swallow/Pip Batty/David Dible, +44
(0)20 7638 9571heptares@citigatedr.co.ukorHeptares
TherapeuticsMalcolm Weir, +44 (0)1707 358
629CEOmalcolm.weir@heptares.com@HeptaresTLorSosei Group
CorporationChris Cargill, +44 (0)7912 892 199Head of Investor
Relations and Corporate Communicationsccargill@sosei.comHarumi
Banse, +81 (0)3 5210 3399Investor Relations and Corporate
Communications (Japan)hbanse@sosei.com