Using a chemical linkage adaptation of its optimized "yeast two-hybrid" technology, renamed "yeast chemical-hybrid" (YChemH), Hybrigenics Services is now able to screen a small molecule as a "bait" against its cDNA or genomic libraries expressing millions of "prey" protein fragments to identify target proteins with which this tested molecule interacts.

These exhaustive screens can be of interest from both safety and efficacy perspectives. This technology may uncover a full range of related targets accounting for the whole spectrum of therapeutic activities of a drug (so-called "on-targets") and/or explain unexpected side effects exerted through unsuspected targets (so-called "off-targets").

Some drugs are active in whole cellular or animal models, but their mechanism of action remains unknown: the YChemH technology may find a relevant target for these "orphan" drugs, in a process called "drug de-orphanisation". Finally, it may be relevant for widely used chemicals in every day products to ascertain that they do not interact with any protein.

This new technology has been developed in collaboration with Charnwood Molecular, an English medicinal chemistry firm, for the linkage of the small molecule to the rest of the yeast molecular biology machinery mastered by Hybrigenics Services. It is the outcome of a joint development project amounting to a total investment of close to one million euro over two years which has been supported up to 40% of the costs by a European Union subsidy under the Eurostars® programme.

"This new service offering covers a whole new area of protein interaction screening: with small molecules. It has been conceived and developed to strategically answer recurrent unmet needs of the pharmaceutical industry and to generate awareness of the chemical industry. We warmly thank Charnwood Molecular for their up-lifting collaborative spirit and their outstanding chemical contribution, first to the project and now, to the launch of this new YChemH service" said Remi Delansorne, Hybrigenics Services’ President.