FEI Partners with Five Pharmaceutical Companies, the Medical Research Council and the University of Cambridge to form Cryo-EM...
April 04 2016 - 6:05AM
Organizations involved in the Cambridge Pharmaceutical Cryo-EM
Research Consortium will share access to cryo-electron microscopy
equipment and methods and will collaborate on developing the
technology to benefit pharmaceutical drug discovery research.
HILLSBORO, Ore. and LONDON, April 04, 2016 (GLOBE
NEWSWIRE) -- FEI (NASDAQ:FEIC) has partnered with five
pharmaceutical companies: Astex Pharmaceuticals, AstraZeneca,
GlaxoSmithKline, Heptares Therapeutics, and UCB; the Medical
Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology (MRC-LMB); and the
University of Cambridge's Nanoscience Centre, to form the
"Cambridge Pharmaceutical Cryo-EM Consortium," which is the first
of its kind worldwide. As part of the three-year agreement, FEI
will provide sample preparation and data collection services on a
Titan Krios(TM) cryo-transmission electron microscope (cryo-EM) to
the consortium companies for early-stage drug discovery
research.
The five companies involved in the consortium will
share access to the microscope with colleagues from the MRC-LMB and
the University of Cambridge in return for expert guidance on the
use of cryo-EM technology. FEI's Titan Krios will be installed at
the Nanoscience Centre in May.
Richard Henderson, pioneer in the field of cryo-EM
at MRC-LMB, states, "It is delightful to know that the development
of cryo-EM, which many people have worked on for many years, has
now reached mainstream structural biology. It is particularly
satisfying that pharmaceutical companies are keen to evaluate the
approach for drug development."
Prof. Sir Mark Welland, director of the
Nanoscience Centre, said, "This is a great opportunity for
researchers across the University to access a state-of-the-art
microscope."
Cryo-EM has quickly become one of the most
important techniques used by structural biologists today to obtain
molecular-scale three-dimensional (3D) information about protein
structures. When combined with traditional methods for structure
determination, such as x-ray crystallography and nuclear magnetic
resonance spectroscopy, the resulting models can reveal the
structure of complex, dynamic molecular assemblies down to the
scale of individual atoms. The consortium's Titan Krios will use
the Relion software package, developed by Sjors Scheres at MRC-LMB,
to process the image data into a visual 3D model that helps
researchers see and understand the structure and function of the
protein.
"Cryo-EM 3D models allow us to see and understand
the workings of protein-based molecular machines that we could not
analyze before because they were too large and complex or were
resistant to the preparations required for other techniques,"
states Peter Fruhstorfer, vice president and general manager of the
Life Sciences business, FEI. "The technique was rapidly adopted by
leading academic researchers and is now finding its way into early
stage discovery and development in the pharmaceutical
industry."
Fruhstorfer adds, "In addition to installing the
Titan Krios cryo-EM system, our contribution to the consortium
includes providing an application scientist that will work with the
participating companies to ensure a smooth workflow throughout,
from sample preparation to data collection and data processing,
with a special focus on creating a standardized and robust
single-particle analysis workflow."
For more information about cryo-EM and the
Cambridge Pharmaceutical Cryo-EM Consortium,
contactFEI at contactus@fei.com.
About FEI
FEI Company (Nasdaq:FEIC) designs, manufactures and supports a
broad range of high-performance microscopy workflow solutions that
provide images and answers at the micro-, nano- and picometer
scales. Its innovation and leadership enable customers in industry
and science to increase productivity and make breakthrough
discoveries. Headquartered in Hillsboro, Ore., USA, FEI has over
2,800 employees and sales and service operations in more than 50
countries around the world. More information can be found
at: www.fei.com.
About the Cambridge
University Nanoscience Centre
The Nanoscience Centre provides open access to over 300 researchers
from a variety of University Departments to the nanofabrication and
characterisation facilities housed in a combination of Clean Rooms
and low noise laboratories. The main activity in the building is
making individual devices or structures which are only a few
nanometres in size and then measuring how they work. Office space
is primarily home to the Department of Engineering's Nanoscience
Group, technical and administrative staff and members of other
research groups who require long term access to
facilities.www.nanoscience.cam.ac.uk
FEI Safe Harbor
Statement
This news release contains forward-looking statements that include
statements regarding the performance capabilities and benefits of
the Titan Krios TEM and cryo-EM solution. Factors that could affect
these forward-looking statements include but are not limited to our
ability to manufacture, ship, deliver and install the tools,
solutions or software as expected; failure of the product or
technology to perform as expected; unexpected technology problems
and challenges; changes to the technology; the inability of FEI,
its suppliers or project partners to make the technological
advances required for the technology to achieve anticipated
results; and the inability of the customer to deploy the tools or
develop and deploy the expected new applications. Please also refer
to our Form 10-K, Forms 10-Q, Forms 8-K and other filings with the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for additional information
on these factors and other factors that could cause actual results
to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. FEI
assumes no duty to update forward-looking statements.
For more information contact:
Sandy Fewkes (media contact)
MindWrite Communications, Inc.
+1 408 224 4024
sandy@mind-write.com
FEI
Jason Willey (investors and analysts)
Sr. Director, Investor Relations & Corporate Development
+1 503 726 2533
jason.willey@fei.com
This
announcement is distributed by NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions on
behalf of NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions clients.
The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely
responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the
information contained therein.
Source: FEI Company via Globenewswire
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