Describe ChanTest Corporation
The leading experts in ion channels and GPCR (G-protein coupled receptors) – ChanTest and Applied Cell Sciences (ACS) – are now united to serve the drug-discovery and development needs of pharmaceutical and biotech customers worldwide. The new ChanTest offers integrated ion channel and GPCR services (both automated high-throughput and GLP), cell lines, membranes, and reagents that cover nearly half of the known drugable genome. ChanTest’s expanding library of cell lines is the most comprehensive in the world. Since its inception in 1998, ChanTest has tested more than 20,000 compounds for more than 500 global pharmaceutical and biotech companies. ChanTest works in partnership with customers to speed the drug-development process, save time and money, and ultimately – to help make better, safer drugs. Because of ChanTest’s seminal role in this field, along with the company’s uncompromising commitment to quality, ChanTest was named “most trusted fee-for-service provider” for ion channel screening in the HTStec Ion Channel Trends Survey for two years in a row.
What is the importance of ChanTest's ion channel and GPCR testing?
There are about 1000 genes encoding ion channels and GPCRs in the human genome, and countless more can be assembled from this gene collection. ChanTest scientists were the first to prove hERG as the target for adverse cardiac events linked to non-cardiac drugs: Seldane (terfenadine), Propulsid (cisapride), and Nizoral (ketoconazole), and ChanTest pioneered the development of functional, cell-based ion channel testing as a means to predict cardiac side effects produced by non-cardiac drugs. Such testing is now a standard component of regulatory submissions prior to the approval of drugs for use in humans. Ion channels and GPCRs are natural partners, critical and often-interrelated components of cell signaling. GPCRs are implicated in many diseases and targets of many modern medicinal drugs, while ion channels can be the source of unintended negative side effects. They can also serve as useful drug targets since ion channels control major bodily functions, including excitation, contraction, secretion, and fluid volume. Thus, while ion channels and ion channel-GPCR combinations have always been important as safety and discovery targets, access via the modern paradigm of high-throughput screening has not been previously available. ChanTest’s new integrated ion channel-GPCR services and reagents overcome this obstacle.
ChanTest is now leading the next major advance in ion channel research and services by continuing to develop the world’s most comprehensive library or catalog of ion channel-expressing cell lines. Using the library metaphor, each cell line may be thought of as an “ion channel book.” ChanTest validates the structure, function, and pharmacology of each ion channel book using conventional and automated methods, and arranges them into Ion Channel Panels™ according to tissue (e.g., Cardiac Channel Panel™) or disease (e.g., Pain/Inflammation Channel Panel™). Now, for the first time, pharmaceutical and biotech companies can profile the efficacy and selectivity of drug leads against a broad set of ion channels in functional, cell-based assays: ChanTest can screen drug leads, or even large compound collections, against the entire Ion Channel Catalog™ or specific Ion Channel Panels™.
|