Drug Discovery

Drug Discovery in Fully Flexible & Tailored Solution to Meet your Needs

 

VectorB2B Discovery’s services span across multiple therapeutic areas and classes of molecules. VectorB2B  offers the scientific expertise and technical capabilities required to support your drug discovery projects from target identification all the way through IND submission. Our scientific team reunites the expertise of top Portuguese scientists, providing the best discovery services. Moreover, from your initial contact and  through every milestone of your project, you can expect frequent, proactive communication from a dedicated project manager.

We provide a fully flexible and tailored solution to meet your needs. In fact, VectorB2B can provide stand alone projects or fully integrated drug discovery support to advance your product to the market. All intellectual property is retained by the client.

OUR THERAPEUTIC AREAS

BIOLOGICAL THERAPEUTICS DISCOVERY AND DEVELOPMENT

Hit to Lead
Lead optimization and characterization
Candidate Pharmacology validation
  • High throughput screening using robotized system (cell-based and phenotypic)
  • Gene expression profiling
  • Gene manipulation
  • In vitro target validation
  • In vivo target validation
  • Access to biobank samples
  • Molecular Biophysics

Protein-protein, solute-solute, solute-lipid interactions
Absorbance and fluorescence spectroscopy
Time-correlated single photon counting
Fluorescence anisotropy (steady-state and time-resolved)
Surface plasmon resonance

Molecular structure
Absorbance and fluorescence spectroscopy
Circular dichroism spectroscopy
Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy

Aggregation dynamics
Dynamic light scattering
Absorbance and fluorescence spectroscopy
Transmission electron microscopy

  • Cellular and Tissue Biophysics

Cellular morphology and biomechanics
Atomic force microscopy
Transmission electron microscopy

Cellular membrane penetration
Fluorescence spectroscopy
Flow cytometry
Confocal microscopy

  • Phage display services

Immune, native and synthetic library construction​

Fab, scFv and sdAb antibody formats.

In vitro Phage and Mammalian Cell Display selections​

In vivo mammalian Phage Display selections

  • CellectAb Platform

Uses human T-cells to simultaneously perform antibody diversification and cellular target expression for in situ high throughput hit selection

Design, expression and purification of any IgG or IgG fragment format

Antibody affinity maturation and engineering

Antibody affinity measurements

Epitope mapping

Antibody humanization

In vitro activity assays (Cell Assays, ELISA)

  • In vitro efficacy tests using primary cell cultures, cell lines, tissue cultures and injury models

IN VITRO MODELS

Primary Retinal Cell Cultures
Rat retinal mixed cultures
Rat retinal ganglion cell cultures
Mouse retinal Müller cell cultures
Rat retinal microglial cell cultures
Bovine retinal endothelial cell cultures
Porcine retinal pigment epithelial cell cultures

Tissue Culture

Organotypic retinal cultures from mouse, rat and human

Cell Lines
Endothelial cells (HUVEC, human)
Retinal Müller cells (MIO-M1, human)
Microglial cells (BV-2, murine)

In Vitro Injury Models

Elevated glucose concentration
Elevated Hydrostatic Pressure (EHP)

IN VITRO ASSAYS

Cell viability assessment
Reactive oxygen species (ROS)
Production of nitric oxide (NO)
Cell proliferation assay
Cell migration assays
Phagocytosis assay
Cell death assays
Angiogenesis assays
Permeability assays
Leukocyte adhesion to the endothelium assay
Single cell intracellular calcium imaging

IN VITRO MODELS

Tailored 3D cell culture systems using hydrogels with distinct degrees of stiffness that can be coated with any extracellular matrix protein(s).
Primary cell cultures
Cell lines

IN VITRO SERVICES

Cell survival/Cell death assays
Phenotypic assays
Immunoassays (including Bioplex)
Metabolomic and proteomic analysis
Cell imaging (including high-throughput)
Electrophysiology assays (patch clamp and extracellular recording)
In vitro blood brain barrier testing

IN VITRO MODELS

Tailored 3D cell culture systems using hydrogels with distinct degrees of stiffness that can be coated with any extracellular matrix protein(s).
Primary cell cultures
Cell lines

IN VITRO SERVICES

Cell survival/Cell death assays
Phenotypic assays
Immunoassays (including Bioplex)
Metabolomic and proteomic analysis
Cell imaging (including high-throughput)
Electrophysiology assays (patch clamp and extracellular recording)
In vitro blood brain barrier testing

  • In vivo efficacy tests in rodent and companion animal models

RODENT DISEASE MODELS

Diabetic Retinopathy

Rat model of prediabetes (administration of high concentration of sucrose in water)
Mouse and rat model of type 1 diabetes by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin
Mouse model of type I diabetes (Ins2Akita)

Glaucoma
DBA/2J mouse

Models Of Retinal Injury
Transient retinal ischemia-reperfusion (I-R)
Excitotoxicity-induced retinal degeneration model (intravitreal injection of excitotoxic drugs, such as glutamate)
Ocular inflammation model (injection of LPS)

IN VIVO SERVICES

In Vivo Imaging

Fluorescein angiography
Optical coherence tomography (OCT)

Functional Evaluation

Electroretinography (ERG)
Pattern electroretinography (pERG)
Scotopic threshold response (STR)
Intraocular pressure (IOP) measurement (Tonolab)
Optomotor response (OMR)

RODENT DISEASE MODELS

Alzheimer´s disease
Parkinson´s disease
Autism spectrum disorder
Multiple sclerosis
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Epilepsy

IN VIVO SERVICES

Preclinical Imaging (MRI, PET and SPECT)
Phenotypic screening and behavioural assessment Histopathology and immunohistochemistry
In vivo electrophysiology
In vivo blood brain barrier testing
Development of custom models

RODENT DISEASE MODELS

Cancer cell line-derived xenograft (CDX) models
Syngeneic mouse models
Patient-derived xenograft (PDX)models
Metastasis models

CANCER PATIENTS (COMPANION ANIMALS)

IN VIVO SERVICES

Validation of cell lines for tumor growth
Access to tumour samples from biobank
Creation of stable cell lines that express luciferase (enables bioluminescence imaging)
Clinical observations
Tumor recovery & preservation
Blood collection
PK
Organ recoveries & preservation
Histopathology
Metastasis observations
Development of custom models

What support do you need in drug discovery & development?