Axxora LLC
6181 Cornerstone Court East
Suite 103
San Diego, CA, 92121
Website: http://www.axxora.com
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Electronic Platform Connects Signal Transduction Researchers, Reagents
by Peter Gwynne and Gary Heebner
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Figure 1: ALEXIS Platform homepage.
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From human beings to fruit flies, multicellular organisms depend for their survival on a precise series of actions at the cellular level. Every individual cell in the organism must sense and respond to external and internal signals and work in harmony with its neighbor cells in the organ or tissue. To accomplish this task, each cell possesses a system of molecular highways that allows it to respond appropriately to the environment. Biologists refer to this process of cellular communication as cell signaling, signal transduction,
or cell trafficking.
In the past two years, research into cell signaling has advanced rapidly. “Looking at how cells interact is a very hot area,” says Brian Conkle, president of Axxora, LLC, the North American unit of Alexis Corporation. Indeed, the field has begun to impact other subtopics of research. “Signal transduction took a back seat to apoptosis for a couple of years,” he explains. “But now apoptosis has come into signal transduction. Scientists need to understand signal mechanisms to understand necrosis or cell death.”
The blossoming of research on cell signaling presents scientists with the challenge of staying in touch with the work of a burgeoning number of colleagues. “It’s very critical to keep up with the speed at which the field is moving forward,” says Silvia Dettwiler, president of Alexis Corporation, Switzerland, the operational headquarters of the ALEXIS group of companies. To do so, life scientists must obtain, as quickly as possible, the biochemicals and reagents developed by colleagues and competitors. Those developers, in turn, want their products to reach the research community as rapidly as possible.
Finding good sources for new compounds presents a large hurdle to scientists at the leading edge of signal transduction. Individuals or research teams can spend hours trying to reach fellow scientists who had isolated and identified compounds of interest. Even when connections are made, scientists face the problem of shipping the requested reagent from one laboratory to another without compromising it. And shipping sensitive biochemicals and reagents across international borders requires sophisticated knowledge and expertise.
A unique global platform and marketplace
Alexis has developed a global platform and marketplace — called the ALEXIS® Platform — that helps to link academic groups and small and medium-sized manufacturers of innovative reagents for cell signaling with users who need to obtain the reagents quickly from a reliable source. Launched in August 2002, the “e-marketplace” (www.alexis-e.biz) provides information on current products and techniques, scientific events, and leading edge publications as well as reference wall charts. Most important, it guarantees fast access to required reagents.
The platform focuses on several key areas, including apoptosis, immunology and cancer research, adhesion molecules and cytokines, neurochemicals, and nitric oxide pathways, as well as general cell signaling and signal transduction. “The idea is to create a one-stop shop for all types of reagents needed for life science research — antibodies, small molecules, and other reagents,” says Stephan Klee, IT Manager and platform designer at Alexis.
Scientists can browse the website by manufacturer or product/application and can search according to several other parameters (Figure 1). They can also use the portal to contact trained scientists who provide product support and additional
technical information as needed. “The portal is an easy tool for researchers to get a lot of information quickly and to find the reagents they need,” says Klee.
Once logged on, scientists have various ways to find the reagents and information they seek. “Our database is accessible to search robots; you can find any product through Google or any other search engine,” Klee says. “The site’s internal search engine is also very strong. We index the complete database, so that even cited authors can be found. We provide background information on reagents, such as literature references that provide abstracts and even full links for publications that are free.”
Browsers can log onto the platform from anywhere in the world. “No matter where you are located, you can order and access items at the local price,” says Klee. To enable that, Alexis has established a worldwide distribution network that uses key partners in many countries. The local subsidiaries and branch offices permit researchers to quickly access products and obtain technical support whatever their location. The company is also working to establish Intranets within several pharmaceutical companies that will enhance the speed and ease with which products are ordered.
Monitoring 14,000 products
“The platform combines information and operations ‘under one roof’,” says Dettwiler. “Approximately 80 percent of the products can be delivered within one to three days from central inventories in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Operational systems are in place to transfer incoming products from original manufacturers to researchers around the world the same day. We also monitor 14,000 products and update the information on the ALEXIS Platform daily.”
A platform that guarantees rapid delivery of reagents is only as effective as the compounds that it offers. Tracking down key products for research in cell signaling and other fields “is very much a moving target,” says Conkle. “For example, we try to look for critical elements that researchers need, such as receptor ligands in apoptosis. For classical signal transduction we have kinases. We’re also looking for antibodies and inhibitors.”
Dettwiler divides the compounds available through the ALEXIS Platform into two classes. “There are those that have a short life span due to some recent publications or discoveries,” she says. “And others, such as PMA(TPA), CD40L, and NMMA, become standards that have long life spans because many researchers need them as key reagents.” Blockbuster products that have recently become available through the platform include BAY 41-2272, a nitric oxide-independent soluble guanylyl cyclase inhibitor, and SuperFas™ Ligand, a member of the TNF Superfamily that induces apoptosis when it interacts with Fas.
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Figure 2: The ALEXIS Platform Model.
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Linking researchers withoriginal manufacturers
To maintain the quality and timeliness of the web site’s offerings, associates at Alexis spend much of their time keeping in touch with the research community. Their objective: to permit scientists anywhere in the world to access new products shortly after they appear in published scientific articles. “We have two ways to do it,” explains Conkle. “The most important by far is personal contacts — visiting labs to talk to researchers and attending multiple conferences to stay relatively current. We also keep in touch by continuing to review the literature. This allows us to see new applications, say, a molecule that we’ve traditionally associated with nitric oxide research becoming an important tool in immunology laboratories.”
A key facet of the company’s approach is its dedication to tracking down new sources of reagents, such as academic researchers who start up companies to manufacture reagents that they originally developed for their own use but who lack the time and ability to market and distribute their products. “Well connected researchers are a useful source for us, and becoming more common,” Conkle says. “This is good for us because it gives us more reagents. But it’s also good for the professors and groups, providing them with a source of revenue. And getting the reagents out there allows scientists working in the arena to advance the field efficiently.” The net result is to put researchers in touch with the original manufactures of the reagents that they need (Figure 2).
Reinhard Wetzker, a professor in the research unit on molecular biology at the University of Jena in Germany, has benefited from the capabilities of the platform. “We are focusing on one family of signaling proteins, the PI3 kinases. We would like to know the functional consequences of the multiple interactions of these kinases,” he says. “Alexis is providing low molecular weight substances that induce specific reactions with our signaling proteins. We are also using antibodies produced by Alexis to detect specific proteins after we separate them by electrophoresis. And we rely on the site for human proteins.”
Wetzker’s use of the platform has proved positive. “We found it straightforward to gain access via the platform,” he recalls. “And the submission from the Alexis side was immediate. In some cases we got a rare reagent in only five days.”
Technology transfer agreements
Individual researchers and other small-scale manufacturers of reagents can choose how to work with Alexis Corporation once they contact — or are contacted by — the firm. Typically, the corporation licenses innovative reagents from scientists through technology
transfer agreements. In other cases, the scientists supply initial quantities of the compound on a consignment basis. In each case the agreement gives the manufacturers the opportunity to commercialize newly developed products without investing in the sales and marketing tools usually required to promote a new compound. This type of agreement does not prevent the manufacturing scientist from continuing to use the invention with colleagues or collaborators.
New findings daily
As researchers in laboratories all over the world publish new findings every day, researchers in cell signaling face the challenge of keeping current with developments in the field prior to replicating or building on them. Apoptosis, transcriptional control, and cytoskeletal regulation represent just a few of the emerging areas of research in signal transduction. Future discoveries in the field, facilitated by compounds available through the electronic platform, will have a profound impact on the understanding and treatment of human disease and other cellular based disorders.
About the authors
Peter Gwynne is a freelance science writer based on Cape Cod, Mass. Gary Heebner is a marketing consultant serving the scientific industry, based in Foristell, Mo.
More information is available at the Web site: www.alexis-e.biz.
Silvia Dettwiler and Stephan Klee can be reached at: Alexis Corporation, Industriestrasse 17, CH-4415 Lausen, Switzerland.
Brian Conkle can be reached at Axxora LLC, 6181 Cornerstone Court East, Suite 103, San Diego, CA 92121.
Use InfoLINK 3L1127 or Call 800-287-0633
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