Persomics is a private

life science Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy t ...

company specializing in

genetic research Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wo ...

, with locations in

Boston, MA Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

Cupertino, CA Cupertino ( ) is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States, directly west of San Jose on the western edge of the Santa Clara Valley with portions extending into the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The population was 57,82 ...

, and

Gothenburg, Sweden Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has a ...

. The company’s aim is to simplify and expedite the process of discovering the basis of

disease A disease is a particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that a ...

, and has established a particular

phenotypic screening In genetics, the phenotype () is the set of observable characteristics or traits of an organism. The term covers the organism's morphology or physical form and structure, its developmental processes, its biochemical and physiological proper ...

kit that it uses for this purpose. These kits facilitate the interrogation of thousands of

genes In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a ba ...

in parallel, and therefore pertain to

human genome The human genome is a complete set of nucleic acid sequences for humans, encoded as DNA within the 23 chromosome pairs in cell nuclei and in a small DNA molecule found within individual mitochondria. These are usually treated separately as the n ...

pharmaceutical A medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy (pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the medical field and re ...

and

disease model ''Medical model'' is the term coined by psychiatrist R. D. Laing in his ''The Politics of the Family and Other Essays'' (1971), for the "set of procedures in which all doctors are trained". It includes complaint, history, physical examinati ...

research.

Technology

By 2013 the

drug discovery In the fields of medicine, biotechnology and pharmacology, drug discovery is the process by which new candidate medications are discovered. Historically, drugs were discovered by identifying the active ingredient from traditional remedies or by ...

market had begun shifting from the single to the multi-target paradigm, of which Persomics’ technology is a part. Prior to that time, popular

efforts focused on identifying single drugs that fit into specific cellular targets; this came to be known as target-based screening (i.e.

reverse pharmacology In the field of drug discovery, reverse pharmacology also known as target-based drug discovery (TDD), a hypothesis is first made that modulation of the activity of a specific protein target thought to be disease modifying will have beneficial t ...

). The multi-target approach entails the understanding that, although one drug compound might fit into a single target, diseases are associated with complex biological processes, and often multiple cellular targets, which are more difficult to unlock. Today

is enjoying a significant resurgence as part of the portfolio of

strategies leveraged at most companies. This is because

products (such as those offered by Persomics) offer a potentially revolutionary approach to discerning multiple cellular targets as the basis for genetic disease.

Phenotypic screening In genetics, the phenotype () is the set of observable characteristics or traits of an organism. The term covers the organism's morphology or physical form and structure, its developmental processes, its biochemical and physiological proper ...

can lead to the identification of a

molecule A molecule is a group of two or more atoms held together by attractive forces known as chemical bonds; depending on context, the term may or may not include ions which satisfy this criterion. In quantum physics, organic chemistry, and bioch ...

that modifies an organism or disease

phenotype In genetics, the phenotype () is the set of observable characteristics or traits of an organism. The term covers the organism's morphology or physical form and structure, its developmental processes, its biochemical and physiological proper ...

; it does this by acting on a previously unknown target or by acting simultaneously on more than one target. Phenotypic screening is therefore a method utilized in perceiving

gene expression Gene expression is the process by which information from a gene is used in the synthesis of a functional gene product that enables it to produce end products, protein or non-coding RNA, and ultimately affect a phenotype, as the final effect. The ...

. This is of importance to human health because

eukaryotic cells Eukaryotes () are organisms whose Cell (biology), cells have a cell nucleus, nucleus. All animals, plants, fungi, and many unicellular organisms, are Eukaryotes. They belong to the group of organisms Eukaryota or Eukarya, which is one of the ...

(e.g. human cells) have many sophisticated ways of controlling

. One of those ways is through the agency of

siRNA Small interfering RNA (siRNA), sometimes known as short interfering RNA or silencing RNA, is a class of double-stranded RNA at first non-coding RNA molecules, typically 20-24 (normally 21) base pairs in length, similar to miRNA, and operating wi ...

s. By directing

gene silencing Gene silencing is the regulation of gene expression in a cell to prevent the expression of a certain gene. Gene silencing can occur during either transcription or translation and is often used in research. In particular, methods used to silence ge ...

, siRNAs act as

RNA interference RNA interference (RNAi) is a biological process in which RNA molecules are involved in sequence-specific suppression of gene expression by double-stranded RNA, through translational or transcriptional repression. Historically, RNAi was known by o ...

, effectively inhibiting expression of a gene in question. Since the time that the human genome was sequenced, the

s correlating to each gene have been synthesized by various companies. The use of

s therefore facilitates research into the

by allowing for selective suppression of specific genes of interest. Persomics produces a ready-made experiment kit in which any of these

s can be contained. The kit contains the company’s plates, which can hold approximately 3,000 spots of sub-millimeter-sized

s; these can be specified by the researcher requesting the kit. The experiment allows investigators to conduct multiple experiments (up to 3,000 per plate) of different

libraries A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...

.Mike Sjaastad qtd. in Macron, Doug
"Startup Persomics Aims to Launch Mini RNAi Screening Tech by Year-End.”
“Persomics News.” GenomeWeb, 8 July 2015. Web. 11 July 2015] A researcher is therefore able to discern and validate several things: the ways in which

are regulated, the specific mechanisms of biological

signaling pathways Signal transduction is the process by which a chemical or physical signal is transmitted through a cell as a series of molecular events, most commonly protein phosphorylation catalyzed by protein kinases, which ultimately results in a cellula ...

, and the multiple cellular targets, and various

manipulated as a result of

. The approach used by the company is a variation on the efficiency and scale of

Applications

There are several multi-target approaches to drug discovery, among them that used by Persomics. Multi-target alternatives to Persomics’ technology include

drug repositioning Drug repositioning (also called drug repurposing) involves the investigation of existing drugs for new therapeutic purposes. Repurposing achievements A number of successes have been achieved, the foremost including sildenafil (Viagra) for ere ...

polypharmacy Polypharmacy (polypragmasia) is the simultaneous use of multiple medicines by a patient for their conditions. Most commonly it is defined as regularly taking five or more medicines but definitions vary in where they draw the line for the minimum ...

high-throughput screening High-throughput screening (HTS) is a method for scientific experimentation especially used in drug discovery and relevant to the fields of biology, materials science and chemistry. Using robotics, data processing/control software, liquid handlin ...

and

chemogenomics Chemogenomics, or chemical genomics, is the systematic screening of targeted chemical libraries of small molecules against individual drug target families (e.g., GPCRs, nuclear receptors, kinases, proteases, etc.) with the ultimate goal of id ...

. While these research approaches have proved effective in helping scientists to learn more about the

, the majority of the genome is still not understood. This is because approaches pertaining to

have traditionally been expensive and time-consuming. The company embodies a

reverse transfection Reverse transfection is a technique for the transfer of genetic material into cells. As DNA is printed on a glass slide for the transfection process (the deliberate introduction of nucleic acids into cells) to occur before the addition of adherent ...

approach to phenotypic screening; this “is essentially a simplified version of what is currently done in multi-well plates” such as those used in both

in vivo Studies that are ''in vivo'' (Latin for "within the living"; often not italicized in English) are those in which the effects of various biological entities are tested on whole, living organisms or cells, usually animals, including humans, and ...

and

in vitro ''In vitro'' (meaning in glass, or ''in the glass'') studies are performed with microorganisms, cells, or biological molecules outside their normal biological context. Colloquially called "test-tube experiments", these studies in biology an ...

. As with this method, visualizing Persomics’ plates is made possible through the use of

fluorescent dyes A fluorophore (or fluorochrome, similarly to a chromophore) is a fluorescent chemical compound that can re-emit light upon light excitation. Fluorophores typically contain several combined aromatic groups, or planar or cyclic molecules with se ...

. In addition, visualization entails

fluorescence microscopy A fluorescence microscope is an optical microscope that uses fluorescence instead of, or in addition to, scattering, reflection, and attenuation or absorption, to study the properties of organic or inorganic substances. "Fluorescence microscop ...

, which is a powerful tool used for observing cellular responses and mechanisms.

History

Persomics was founded in 2014, when it established itself as part of the Gatehouse Park biohub in Waltham,

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett language, Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut assachusett writing systems, məhswatʃəwiːsət'' English: , ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is the most populous U.S. state, state in the New England ...

, which also houses

AstraZeneca AstraZeneca plc () is a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with its headquarters at the Cambridge Biomedical Campus in Cambridge, England. It has a portfolio of products for major diseases in areas includin ...

. In 2007, after many years of research pertaining to cures for

infectious diseases An infection is the invasion of tissues by pathogens, their multiplication, and the reaction of host tissues to the infectious agent and the toxins they produce. An infectious disease, also known as a transmissible disease or communicable dise ...

at the

Council for Scientific and Industrial Research The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is South Africa's central and premier scientific research and development organisation. It was established by an act of parliament in 1945 and is situated on its own campus in the cit ...

(CSIR) in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the Executive (government), executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, Persomics made its decision to be based in the greater

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

area which “continues to remain the hub of life-saving scientific research”.Senator Edward M. Kennedy qtd. in Burigatto, Carla, and Earl Whipple
”AstraZeneca to Begin Construction for $100M Research Investment at R&D Boston; Expansion Solidifies Company’s Commitment to Massachusetts as a Scientific and Biotech Hub.”
“AstraZeneca” -.

, 7 May 2007. Web. 11 Aug. 2015

References

{{reflist Drug discovery companies

Technology

Applications

History

See also

References