Cellumen announced the commercial availability of a novel pharmaceutical screening technology to help discover new drugs to treat Alzheimer's disease. This technology was jointly developed by Cellumen and the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF).

ADDF provided support for the development of novel tools for drug discovery applications, including cellular models of disease and biosensors that allow for sensitive detection of the interaction between two proteins involved in Alzheimer's disease, CDK5 and p25.

When p25 interacts with CDK5, the activity of CDK5 is increased, initiating a downstream cascade that may promote tangle formation within the brains of Alzheimer's disease patients. This protein:protein interaction biosensor can be used to screen for drugs that disrupt the interaction between these two proteins. A biosensor for CDK5 and an upstream activator, p35 has also been developed to serve as a selectivity screen so that drugs that specifically target the CDK5:p25 interaction can be found…