Evotec is a globally operating drug discovery and development partnership company whose focus areas include infectious diseases. In this area Evotec works on a large portfolio of projects pertaining to antimicrobial resistance (AMR), superbug infections, tuberculosis and malaria, as well as novel antiviral therapies. As part of Evotec’s AMR efforts, the bacteriology & omics team in Lyon has selected grit42’s software platform, specifically the Growth Curves app.
In the fight against superbugs, characterizing bacterial growth in various environments is critical. Biolog’s high-throughput phenotypic microarray instrument, OmniLog, allows the identification of phenotypes of mutants and the fingerprinting compound activity by monitoring growth in hundreds of different conditions. The Growth Curves app from grit42, offers a nice and interactive way to analyse the data from the OmniLog instrument. For example, it shows the average of replicates and in the plate format, it displays the percentage of inhibition with the ability to switch reference in one click. On top of these – and additional – features, the system significantly accelerates the analysis workflow.
The Growth Curves app from grit42 has been developed together with the bacterial infections group at a top 10 pharma and input from US governmental institutions. An early version was shown by a scientist from Sanofi in June of 2017 at the AMR focused ‘IMI ND4BB Translocation’ workshop held at Helmholtz HZI, Germany, and since then the time has been spent perfecting the app. The old workflow involves more than eight hours of analysis work, after the experiment is done, compared to grit42’s redesigned workflow of around half an hour in total.
“At the AMR Conference in Berlin in March of 2019, both WHO, the Pew Trust, and the BEAM Alliance stressed that there are not enough antibiotics in development to meet patient needs. The current state of AMR research was best phrased by Professor Kevin Outterson from Boston University and CARB X, who said: We’re on a boat. The boat is in a storm. And it’s on fire!” comments CEO and co-founder of grit42, Claus Stie Kallesøe, and continues, “We’re proud to be one of the few Danish companies in global fight against superbugs and thrilled that one of the leading drug discovery alliance companies in the world, has selected our software for their AMR research. It fits perfectly with the AMR work we’ve done with the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) in Europe and hope to continue in the future as well.”
The app works as a standalone tool, ready to run from grit42’s servers with a personal login. Other than the described workflow, the Growth Curves app also supports these types of studies: Profiling of cleanroom bacteria – identification of unknown microbes or fungi, optimization of cell lines and culture conditions in bioprocess development, characterization of cell phenotypes for taxonomic or epidemiological studies, determination of a cell’s metabolic and chemical sensitivity properties, as well as mode of action studies of antibiotics. For more information, please visit: https://grit42.com/growthcurves/
ABOUT EVOTEC SE
Evotec is a drug discovery alliance and development partnership company focused on rapidly progressing innovative product approaches with leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, academics, patient advocacy groups and venture capitalists. Evotec operates worldwide and our more than 2,600 employees provide the highest quality stand-alone and integrated drug discovery and development solutions. Evotec covers all activities from target-to-clinic to meet the industry’s need for innovation and efficiency in drug discovery and development (EVT Execute). Evotec has established a unique position by assembling top-class scientific experts and integrating state-of-the-art technologies as well as substantial experience and expertise in key therapeutic areas including neuronal diseases, diabetes and complications of diabetes, pain and inflammation, oncology, infectious diseases, respiratory diseases and fibrosis. On this basis, Evotec has built a broad and deep pipeline of approx. 100 co-owned product opportunities at clinical, pre-clinical and discovery stages (EVT Innovate). Evotec has established multiple long-term alliances with partners including Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Celgene, CHDI, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Sanofi, Takeda, UCB and others. For additional information, please go to www.evotec.com and follow us on Twitter @Evotec.