Centre of Kinomics to open 'Pandora's box' of drug development

The burgeoning field of kinomics - the detailed study of kinases - could open "Pandora's box" for drug development for a wide range of diseases, said Professor Adam McCluskey, of the University of Newcastle, at a black tie dinner last night as he received the Ramaciotti Biomedical Research Award.

McCluskey and his research partner, Professor Phillip Robinson, from the Children's Medical Research Institute and the University of Sydney, received the $1 million award to help establish the world's first Centre for Kinomics.

The Centre will provide the resources for 23 participating New South Wales research teams to analyse current therapeutic drugs and develop new, more effective ones. The equipment funded by the Ramaciotti Biomedical Research Award will be located within two new custom-built research laboratories, one based at the Children's Medical Research Institute and the other at the University of Newcastle.

Kinomics involves the study of kinases using high-throughput screening assays with a vision to exploring the entire human kinome. Given the pivotal role kinases play in many diseases, it's hoped a deeper understanding of kinomics will lead to the development of new drugs to inhibit specific kinases.

The Centre of Kinomics will allow rapid screening of different compounds and give researchers insight in to the effect it has on the entire kinome.

“Receiving this funding means that people suffering from a range of conditions such as neurological diseases, viral diseases, inflammatory conditions and cancer will benefit, because scientists from all over the state will have access to this equipment for a broad range of research projects," said Robinson.

"Essentially, the equipment will allow scientists to identify the undesirable elements of existing therapeutic drugs - in particular the cause of negative side effects – and then use this information to develop new therapeutics.”

The $1 million Ramaciotti Biomedical Research Award, granted every two years, will next be presented in 2011. It is one of the Ramaciotti Foundations, managed by Perpetual, which this year gave $2.5 million to aid biomedical research in Australia.