Target Discovery, Affinity Resins, AquaFirmus

Chemical Biology

Our proprietary AqurFirmus is a methacrylate resin derived from PEG, so it is chemically stable and can be used to immobilize biologically active substances such as compounds and perform other chemical modifications even under organic solvent conditions. In addition, because it is hydrophilic, it has little non-specific protein adsorption and produces little noise that can hinder target protein identification. Furthermore, since the improved AqurFirmus is polymerized using long PEG, it is possible to identify even large target protein complexes.

"AqurFirmus affinity resin" is a technology discovered exclusively by the researchers, and has the potential to become a new tool in drug discovery research.

This resin is chemically stable and has the following advantages:

• Organic compounds can be immobilized on the resin under organic solvent conditions.
• Hydrophilicity reduces the adsorption of non-specific proteins that can hinder identification
• The improved AqurFirmus uses long PEG for polymerization, making it possible to identify even large target protein complexes.
• The improved AquaFirmus has a variety of PEG lengths, eliminating the need to optimize the linker length between the ligand and the solid support.

Applications in the search for targets of unknown drugs under development or target protein complexes

Protein separation and purification by utilizing the chemical stability and low non-specific protein adsorption by introducing photocleavable linkers, etc.

PCA/JP2013/236265, "Novel solid phase carrier"

1. M.Mabuchi, et al., Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 25, 3373-3377(2015)
2. M. Mabuchi, et al., Bioorg. Med. Chem. Lett. 25, 2788-2792 (2015)
3. H. Kamiyama, et al., Chem Biol Drug Des. 101(3), 727-739 (2023)