Sygnature invests in Cheshire start-up
Sygnature Discovery, the provider of integrated drug discovery resource, has invested, through its parent Sygil Group, in a new start-up company.
The investment in Peak Proteins sees Sygil making a “significant” financial investment in the BioHub-based business at Alderley Park, Cheshire. The partnership with Peak Proteins adds protein production and crystallography to Sygnature’s current range of drug discovery capabilities.
Peak Proteins was founded by Dr Mark Abbott in 2014 and has been trading since summer 2015.
Sygnature Discovery’s founder and CEO, Dr Simon Hirst said: “Computational structure-based design is a very important part of modern drug discovery and Peak Proteins’ team of highly experienced scientists offer a rare skill set in protein crystallography which compliments and supports our existing capabilities. This is much more than a financial investment as we will be able to share our management expertise with Peak Proteins and support their future growth.”
He continued: “Our involvement means that we can now offer protein production and crystallography alongside our client projects, or separately, and this expands our capabilities further. The two companies will also be able to work together to develop new services and technologies that will be advantageous to our clients.”
Dr Mark Abbott, founder of Peak Proteins, said: “It is great to have the expertise and involvement of Simon and his team at Sygnature Discovery. There is a lot we can learn from their successes as we grow our business. Working together in this way will give us the necessary cash injection to accelerate our growth as well as making some important capital investments in equipment.”
Abbott, Dr Tina Howard and Dr Derek Ogg, of Peak Proteins, are joined by Hirst and Dr Stuart Onions, of Sygnature Discovery, on the board of directors.
