Institut Pasteur Korea (IP-K) Collaborates with Thermo Fisher Scientific to Advance Drug Target Identification
- Combined technology will improve and expand high-content RNAi screening


SEOUL, South Korea (March 24, 2011), Institut Pasteur Korea (IP-K) announced today that it has signed a two-year partnership with Thermo Fisher Scientific to co-develop reagents and services for use with IP-K’s PhenomicID™, a method using high-content genome-wide visual arrays to identify drug targets in live cellular disease models. The multi-tiered program involves technology improvement, technology expansion and pilot drug-target pair studies.

Describing the first phase of the program, Veronica Soloveva, director of the Center of Core Technologies at IP-K, emphasizes the synergies: “IP-K’s phenomic technology combined with the Thermo Scientific Dharmacon RNAi tools and expertise will make high-throughput genome-wide RNAi screening applicable in a wide variety of biological models.”

IP-K uses array-based high content imaging to extract robust and specific RNAi data sets, providing a means for standardization of whole-genome RNAi screening. This technology will be combined with Dharmacon RNAi platforms to develop an optimized ready-to-use solution for drug-target identification, filling a key unmet need in the global scientific community.

“IP-K’s Phenomic array technology enables profiling of well-defined RNAi responses by imaging live cells in multiple parameters simultaneously. In a genome screening setup, this allows us to discern an effect of interest from non-specific background in a highly reliable fashion,” says Ulf Nehrbass, CEO of Institut Pasteur Korea.

Devin Leake, director of research and development, Genomics products, for Thermo Fisher Scientific, added, “Integrating world-class Thermo Scientific Dharmacon products and services with PhenomicID™ will provide an extremely effective ‘plug-and-play’ solution for use in academic, biotech and pharmaceutical labs for rapid identification of target compounds.”

If the initial phases of the multi-year collaboration are successful, further collaborative opportunities built on the findings of the research will be pursued.


About PhenomicID™
PhenomicID™ is technology platform developed at Institut Pasteur Korea that combines genome-wide RNAi knock-down screening with live cell imaging technology. It is used to identify novel therapeutic targets in complex disease model systems by finding genes that worsen or lessen the visual disease phenotype. Using a proprietary, innovative visual array technology, the effect of individually knocking down all human genes can be assessed in a precisely defined, visual manner on a statistically significant number of living cells.