Research lead
Scottish Biomedical Ltd is to add a new a sodium channel, Nav1.9, to its drug discovery toolkit. The Glasgow-based company says it is the first to make this channel, an as yet unexplored target for pain drugs.
This adds to the company’s range of ion channels for drug discovery. Sodium channel function is involved in many disease areas, including epilepsy, pain and cardiac dysfunction. Scottish Biomedical currently has Nav1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 1.8 and 1.9 available and Nav1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 in late stage development.
All ion channels are available in HEK (human embryonic kidney) cells and are co-expressed with the beta subunit. The cells lines are available for purchase, or the company can carry out high throughput screening and profiling as a service. Scottish Biomedical also has electrophysiology capabilities in house and can offer this in combination with calcium imaging.
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