Kalexsyn, Inc: your science deserves the best scientists

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Kalexsyn Announces Alliance with Michigan High Throughput Screening Center

Speeding up the complex, costly drug-discovery process, which has economic development and job creation implications, is the objective of an alliance between a Kalamazoo-based, fast growing life science company and Kalamazoo Valley Community College. The college's Michigan High Throughput Screening Center and Kalexsyn Inc., located at the Southwest Michigan Innovation Center, have established a joint service agreement. The alliance will facilitate the process for drug researchers to identify and synthesize compounds that show promise in the treatment of the spectrum of diseases. The screening center, based at the college's Michigan Technical Education Center and with a library of more than 100,000 druglike compounds, uses its sophisticated, roboticized, high-speed equipment to find the proverbial "needle in a haystack" when it comes to identifying pathways that offer promise of success in the discovery and development of drugs. The screening center's clients include pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology enterprises, university researchers and government laboratories. "After our screening process provides hits", said Rob Kilkuskie, the center's Senior Director, "our clients often need expert chemistry assistance to proceed with their studies. The senior scientists at Kalexsyn are uniquely qualified to bring professional solutions to those chemistry needs". With expertise in organic synthesis, physical-property modification, analogy strategies, and diversification of compound collections, Kalexsyn, as the center's preferred provider of medicinal-chemistry services, "can further accelerate the drug-discovery process", said Chief Executive Officer David Zimmermann, "at all stages, including the optimization of leads and the synthesis of intermediates and building blocks". "What this all means", said Kathy Johnson, the screening center's Business Development Director, "is that Kalexsyn's medicinal chemists refine the hits with potential to further narrow the focus of the research. The earlier you know what does or doesn't work, the better the cost-effectiveness. That's why the screening center's rapid evaluation of a large number of drugable compounds against a single drug target is so critical and so important. That's also why the role Kalexsyn plays is equally as important". Kalexsyn was founded in 2003 by Dr. Robert Gadwood, Ph.D., and David Zimmermann. Both are former Pharmacia chemists who bring decades of pharmaceutical and business experience to their positions. Each member of the Kalexsyn chemistry staff has, on average, sixteen years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Kalexsyn also has a team of senior scientific advisors comprised of world-renowned medicinal chemists. "This alliance will add value for customers of the screening center through our capability for carrying out development of the hits and leads identified by its library of compounds", said Dr. Robert Gadwood, Kalexsyn's President and Chief Scientific Officer. "The not-for-profit screening center's mission is to serve the needs of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies by offering access to services that most enterprises do not have in house", Kilkuskie said. "The innovatively diverse library has helped clients proceed with research decisions faster for less money. This benefits the entire biotechnology and life-sciences sectors". Because of it's screening center, KVCC was invited to join the Core Technology Alliance (CTA), a coalition of major life-science research initiatives based at the University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Wayne State University, Western Michigan University, and the VanAndel Research Institute in Grand Rapids. The CTA was established by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation to foster biotechnology research and business development applications. The CTA's mission is to place the state of Michigan on the leading edge of medical, healthcare and industrial breakthroughs via research into the life sciences and biotechnology. For more information about the Michigan High Throughput Screening Ceter, contact Robert Kilkusie at 269-353-1582, or rkilkuskie@kvcc.edu. For more information about Kalexsyn Inc., contact David Zimmermann at 269-372-8705 or dczimmermann@kalexsyn.com.