Dimerix Bioscience Pty Ltd (Dimerix), a Stone Ridge Ventures funded company, has recently raised a further $800,000 in investor capital. The additional capital will fund the ongoing development of their GPCRHit assay which deciphers the interactions between G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). GPCRs are a very common drug target, with almost half of all approved pharmaceuticals acting through this receptor class. It was only recently discovered that drugs did not act through monomeric GPCR receptors, rather having their effects through complexes of receptors such as heterodimers.

There are currently no commercially available tools to identify compounds that act on heterodimers. The information that can be gleaned from Dimerix’s patent protected GPCRHit assay, coupled with existing knowledge about marketed drugs and their targets, will be used to develop improved side-effect profiles for existing GPCR drugs and allow repositioning of existing drugs to treat different conditions.

As part of the assay development, Dimerix have recently entered a collaboration with the Chinese National Centre for Drug Screening (NCDS) which will leverage the NCDS experience and infrastructure to enable Dimerix’s GPCRHit assay to be applied for the high throughput screening of heterodimer targets. Professor Ming-Wei Wang, Director of NCDS, said “our collaboration will establish the first assay system that is capable of high-throughput screening of compound libraries against GPCR heterodimer targets. We are pleased to be collaborating with Dimerix to create the next generation of GPCR drugs.” Dr James Williams, Dimerix CEO, commented “GPCR heterodimers present a rich opportunity for enhancement of existing GPCR drugs, and for discovery and development of new GPCR drugs. The National Center for Drug Screening brings world-leading capability and infrastructure to an Australian innovation and the synergies realised will result in significant benefits to both organisations.”

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