Established in 2001 as a spinout from UCL, Birkbeck College and the Institute of Cancer Research, Domainex Ltd is a Cambridge-based, privately-owned small-molecule therapeutics company that provides integrated drug research services to pharmaceutical, biotechnology and academic partners globally. Services cover a wide span of the drug research value chain, from disease target validation to pre-clinical candidate nomination. Domainex’s services include recombinant protein expression and use of its proprietary technology platform, Combinatorial Domain Hunting, to identify soluble protein fragments for structural biology and assay development. Hit-finding activities encompass assay development and screening utilising its Bioassay Builder and LeadBuilder platforms. The core of the service offering is undertaking multi-parameter medicinal chemistry optimisation of hits and leads under the mantra ‘every compound counts’, which can save up to 30% on the average industry time from target to candidate.

Additionally, Domainex is investing in developing its own therapeutic compounds for out-licensing in two specific areas: 1) inhibitors of the kinases TBK1 & IKK epsilon to treat inflammatory conditions such as COPD and lupus; 2) the emerging epigenetic target class of lysine methyltransferases implicated in oncology and other diseases, where to date Domainex has built a portfolio of assets encompassing novel chemical matter, proprietary assays and X-ray crystal structures.