GenNext Technologies and Thermo Fisher Scientific Partner to Advance Structural Biology

GenNext® Technologies, Inc., a pioneer in protein structure analysis, has partnered with Thermo Fisher Scientific, one of the world's leading companies serving science, to present a new and practical structural biology workflow that will streamline the biotherapeutic drug development process.

Within the scope of this collaboration, GenNext's AutoFox® Protein Footprinting Analysis System is combined with Thermo Fisher's industry-leading liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) solutions—particularly Thermo Scientific™ Orbitrap™ instruments, sample preparation technologies, and other structural proteomics materials such as crosslinkers or fluorescent labels—to provide researchers working on protein structure and drug interactions with a powerful and end-to-end solution.

This integrated system can analyze protein structure and dynamics at high resolution; this is of major importance for drug safety, efficacy, and correct delivery to the body. At the same time, this system provides researchers with important support in validating structural models developed by artificial intelligence—an area that is increasingly coming to the fore in drug discovery today.

"We are excited about pushing boundaries in structural biology by collaborating with Thermo Fisher Scientific," says GenNext Technologies CEO Scot Weinberger. "By integrating our Fox® product line with Thermo Fisher mass spectrometers such as Thermo Scientific™ Orbitrap™ Tribrid™ MS or Thermo Scientific™ Orbitrap Exploris™ MS, advanced reagents, and data analysis software, we enable researchers to see biomolecular structure and behavior faster and more easily than ever before."

High Resolution, Simplified Workflow
The workflow begins with GenNext's AutoFox® system. This system, through the Radical Protein Footprinting method, can map protein shapes, flexibility, and binding properties under conditions close to their natural environments. The information obtained is analyzed with high sensitivity and accuracy using Thermo Fisher's Orbitrap mass spectrometers. The EasyPep™ sample preparation kits and Tandem Mass Tag reagents supporting the process increase experimental consistency, enable the combination of repeated measurements, and maximize protein coverage. The Thermo Scientific™ Orbitrap™ Astral™ mass spectrometer further advances the workflow with fast analysis time, high sensitivity, and comprehensive protein analysis, significantly accelerating protein discovery and characterization.

All this data is processed using GenNext's FoxWare® software and Thermo Scientific's Proteome Discoverer software. This creates a seamless, easily applicable, and powerful system from sample preparation through analysis and interpretation of results. This solution provides a particularly valuable tool for structural biology research, which is especially critical in the development of biologic drugs and biosimilars.

"Structural biology plays a fundamental role in understanding biological processes at the molecular level and in developing new therapeutic approaches," says Pushkin Pant, Vice President and General Manager of Life Sciences Mass Spectrometry at Thermo Fisher Scientific. "Through this collaboration with GenNext, scientists are able to obtain much deeper and more applicable information with these technologically complementary systems."

Supporting Next-Generation Drug Development
Artificial intelligence technologies accelerate drug discovery by predicting protein structures and drug interactions; however, these predictions must be experimentally validated to become useful. The system developed through the GenNext and Thermo Fisher collaboration enables researchers to rapidly and efficiently test and improve artificial intelligence-generated models—in fact, this method has already begun to be successfully used in GenNext's own research and by its clients.

Combining speed, sensitivity, and real-world validation capabilities, this system stands out as a powerful solution in both conventional and artificial intelligence-assisted drug development processes.