Startup’s technology enables extraction and crystallization of membrane proteins in their native state.
French membrane proteins specialist Calixar raised €875,000 (about $1.1 million) in an initial round of fundraising with private investors and business angels. The start-up firm provides a range of services for the production, extraction, solubilization, purification, stabilization, and crystallization of functional membrane proteins and antigens. Calixar says the financial boost will allow it to develop international operations, progress its research programs, and offer more targeted services to clients.
Founded in 2009, Calixar holds exclusive rights to IP developed by the French National Scientific Research Centre (CNRS) and the University of Lyon. The generic technology uses proprietary non-denaturing reagents to enable the extraction of membrane proteins in their native state, and retain stability in solution to enable crystallization and 3-D structure analyses.
Calixar has used the technology as the foundation to develop a suite of gene-to-3-D structure proteomics services for membrane protein drug and target discovery, either starting from biological samples, recombinant cell lines, or from the target gene sequence. The firm has already inked a number of research agreements in Europe and the U.S.
