Rapidly identify actionable therapeutic targets.

Combining deep discovery proteomics and AI to identify, validate, and match the optimal target with your drug.

Fundamentally, drugs work by interacting with host proteins to modify their activity and achieve therapeutic effect. Our target identification services leverage discovery proteomics to directly quantify thousands of proteins per sample, including those now accessible via emerging drug modalities, alongside AI-based validation to find protein targets that are:

Differentially expressed.

We provide quantitative protein measures, including quantification of protein copy numbers, to identify proteins that are uniquely expressed or over-expressed in diseased tissue compared to both normal adjacent tissue as well as a panel of other normal human tissues.

Disease-modifying.

Our deep biocomputational analysis can be applied to contextualize key proteins of interest in biological and signaling pathways, to confirm if they are mechanistically involved in disease pathogenesis.

Tractable for a given drug.

We apply AI to assess therapeutic tractability – whether the protein structure can be bound or otherwise accessed by the drug (e.g., by proximity-induced degradation) – to better predict drug efficacy and potential off-target effects.

Enable novel target discovery in the rapidly expanding druggable space.

From ADCs to radioligand pharmaceuticals to targeted protein degraders, innovative drug modalities have increased the number of tractable targets from a few hundred to several thousand proteins. Our services provide rapid, comprehensive characterization of this expanded breadth of potential targets to identify the best target for your therapy.

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Why discovery proteomics for target identification?

Much work in target identification to date has relied upon human genetics and RNA sequencing to identify differentially expressed genes. Ultimately, however, druggability occurs at the protein level. DNA and RNA measures are limited surrogates for quantitative protein levels, and are often not well correlated in disease or treated states.

Using mass spectrometry, Sapient’s /Deep/ Discovery Proteomics method enables direct peptide sequencing of >12,000 proteins and post-translational modifications (PTMs) in cells and tissue. We provide quantitative measures of differentially expressed proteins, including those on the cell surface, to generate disease protein libraries across therapeutic areas – including oncology, neurology, and immunology – that may represent viable targets.

We can further characterize such targets using our extensive datasets of proteomic measures made in >1,000 tumors as well as 20+ normal human tissues from >1,000 individuals.

Leverage our target identification services to differentiate your development.

Webinar

A New Golden Age for Target ID: Accessing the Novel Druggable Space with Discovery Proteomics

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Cell Surface Proteomics for T Cell Engagers: Deep Profiling of TAAs

Application Note

Cell Surface Proteomics for Radioligand Therapies: Profiling Cancer Cell Receptors

Application Note

Protein Degrader Proteomics for PROTACs and Molecular Glues

Application Note

Cell Surface Proteomics for ADC Development: Deep Profiling of TAAs

Ready to discover more?

Connect with our scientists to discuss your project or your key targets of interest. We’re here to help you apply robust, deep proteomic approaches to optimize your drug’s probability of success.

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