Heidelberg, 18^th November, 2014

Sciomics and PEPperPRINT agreed on a partnership for the co-distribution and co-marketing of their product and service portfolios with the aim to provide a comprehensive microarray toolbox for antibody characterization and biomarker discovery.

A joint two-step process for antibody characterization will enable the selection of the optimal antibody from a set of antibody candidates for therapeutic, diagnostic or research purposes. Sciomics will offer its custom antibody microarray platform as well as protein arrays for target binding validation and cross-reactivity analysis. Selected candidates will be further characterized by epitope mapping and epitope substitution scans provided by PEPperPRINT to identify conserved and variable amino acids as well as possible cross-reactions from a bioinformatics analysis of conserved core motifs.

The combination of peptide and antibody microarrays by PEPperPRINT and Sciomics further provides a powerful approach for discovery, in-depth characterization and validation of new serum biomarkers including antibodies and serum proteins. A combination of the core strengths of the respective platforms enables a robust and cost-efficient discovery of protein as well as autoantibody biomarker candidates in a highly multiplexed fashion. This increases the likelihood of identifying the optimal biomarker candidates and furthermore can increase the assay accuracy by combining information derived from both platforms.

“The partnership agreement is based on a long lasting research relationship and highest appreciation of Sciomics scientific competences. A combination of the core technologies of both companies allows customers to benefit from our complementary and powerful microarray tool box” says Dr. Volker Stadler, CEO of PEPperPRINT. “The fact that both companies are located in Heidelberg certainly facilitates logistics and scientific collaboration and underlines the strength of the Heidelberg biotech cluster.”

"Sciomics is very glad to have entered into a partnership with PEPperPRINT. This complements our own expertise and portfolio in antibody characterization with the strong expertise of the PEPperPRINT team." says Dr. Christoph Schröder, CEO of Sciomics. "For biomarker research, combining the powerful microarray platforms of PEPperPRINT and Sciomics enables a most comprehensive coverage of all topics concerning discovery, verification as well as in-depth characterization of biomarker candidates. This partnership enables us to provide the maximum amount of value to our customer's projects."

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