Analytical Support

Analytical Support

Atheris Laboratories, in partnership with Bachem, provides the Melusine Venom Libraries, the largest collection of venoms in the world designed for discovering new drugs ready for your drug discovery program. In addition, Atheris Laboratories has developed an integrated Venomics platform that combines bioactivity-guided, computer-assisted, and structure-driven approaches to advance your HTS process. This analytical support is offered on a fee-for-service basis or under R&D agreements from Atheris.

Deconvolution and Hit Follow-up

The deconvolution process to identify bioactives in fractions of the natural library is facilitated by the use of proprietary bioinformatic tools that match mass spectra (MS) against public and proprietary protein, expressed sequence tags, and genome databases. The novelty, relevance, and drugability of hits are similarly evaluated at an early stage to discard false positives or hits of lower interest, in order to improve and speed up the lead selection process.

Typical hit follow-up steps include:

Mass spectrometry (MS) and tandem (MS/MS) analysis for primary evaluation
Scale-up and resupply of hits
Sub-fractionation of hits with delivery of sub-fractions
Final purification of hits
Complete structural elucidation (de novo MS/MS and Edman sequencing)
Homology searches in databases & bioinformatic loops
Evaluation of hits (technical survey, intellectual property rights)
Synthesis for validation is offered by Bachem on a privileged basis
Validation of synthetic hits by chromatographic co-elution and comparative MS profiles
Lead optimization is conducted using a dual strategy:

	- Improving on nature through peptidomimetics
	- Relying on nature using nanoVenomics screening for analogs

Molecular design for conventional structure-function studies and medicinal chemistry to design peptidomimetics are coupled to screening for natural analogs in related venoms and homology searches in databases. The identification of natural analogs using nanoVenomics analytical strategies provides instrumental information to understand where nature has introduced mutations to modulate the activity of a family of bioactives.

ToxEnter Database

The ToxEnter database has over 300,000 bibliographic references on over 3000 venomous animals and 10,000 toxins and antimicrobial peptides. ToxEnter also contains clinical symptoms for venoms as well as information on existing patents. In addition, Atheris Laboratories has developed advanced data-mining and text-mining bioinformatic tools that merge in silico and in vitro studies to assist your drug discovery process.

To learn more about deconvolution services and the ToxEnter database, please visit Atheris.com.

Please send a quote for a Melusine Venom Library

Learn more about Melusine® Venom Libraries


-	Benefits & Advantages
-	Drug Discovery with Venoms
-	Analytical Support

Melusine® Venom Libraries


-	Melusine® Common Venom Discovery Collections
-	Melusine® Rare Venom Discovery Collections
-	Melusine® Rare Spider Venom Collections
-	Melusine® Snake Venom Collection
-	Melusine® Custom Venom Collections

Melusine® Venom Libraries

Designed to Discover Tomorrow's Drugs

A detailed list of venoms is given in each Discovery Collection description.
Melusine® Venom Libraries are produced by Atheris Laboratories and exclusively distributed by Bachem.
Melusine®, Neptilus®, and ToxEnter® are registered trademarks of Atheris Laboratories.