Technology > CellJammer Discovery Platform
ProtAffin has developed the CellJammer® discovery platform to generate glycan-binding decoy proteins for the treatment of inflammatory diseases. The approach combines bioinformatics, structure-based protein engineering and proprietary assays to develop protein-based therapeutics.
We choose the protein target or chemokine involved in inflammatory disease and analyze the nature of the protein-glycan interactions using proprietary databases and modeling algorithms. We then increase the GAG binding affinity of the protein by modifying selected sites and turn it into a decoy protein, which blocks the interaction between the unmodified protein and its GAG ligand. We additionally disable the bio-active domain of the target protein (e.g. the GPCR binding domain in the case of chemokines). The process from project initiation to in vivo testing lasts 9 months. ProtAffin has already demonstrated the validity of the approach for five distinct target proteins.
ProtAffin’s lead product, PA401, an IL-8 based glycan-binding decoy protein with potent anti-inflammatory properties, was derived from our proprietary CellJammer® discovery platform.
