Gentronix partners to add cell health assays for early research

02-Nov-2011 - Last updated on 02-Nov-2011 at 10:57 GMT

Gentronix has added cell health assays through a partnership with BioQuanta to detect toxicity earlier in development.

Partnering with France-based BioQuanta gives Gentronix access to a functional metabolomics platform, Mitoxis, which it believes will complement its portfolio of genotoxicity assays.

“We have been looking to enhance follow-up of toxicology end points”, Steve Beasley, commercial director at Gentronix, told Outsourcing-Pharma. Using the 70 assays in the Mitoxis range Gentronix can aid understanding of the impact a chemical has on aspects of cell health, such as oxidative stress.

Mitoxis can measure 30 parameters in one sample to give clients an understanding of functional metabolisms and toxicity liabilities early in development. “We quite frequently get asked about how clients can understand toxicology at an earlier stage of development”, Beasley said.

Characteristics of Mitoxis, such as working with 5µl samples, make it suitable for use very early in development when only small quantities of a therapeutic are available. Also, Mitoxis can detect subtle changes as it has a lower coefficient of variation, about four per cent, than screening tests.

Clients will also gain access to end points other than those offered by Gentronix. Current assays offered by Gentronix, such as GreenScreen, focus on genotoxicity but Beasley wants to help clients in other areas. “We want to be a predictive toxicology company”, Beasley said.

Transatlantic assays

As well as adding capabilities Gentronix is expanding into the US. An East Coast-based business development employee was hired five months ago, Beasley said, and has been talking to US biopharm companies.

Gentronix will use its US contacts to expand use of Mitoxis beyond Europe. BioQuanta already provides Mitoxis services from its laboratory near Paris, France but clients are mainly European.

While expanding in the US Gentronix has also been leveraging its links to European clients. In mid-October Gentronix became a distributor of Litron Laboratories’ MicroFlow products. Beasley said Gentronix knows potential MicroFlow product clients from selling its own assay kits and services.