ProJini
Re-designing chemistry for health
What if no new drugs were developed over the last decades?
Hard to imagine, isn't it?
Well, this is the reality for the pesticide market.
The Need
It is estimated that more than 30% of the world's harvest is lost due to pests. This costs us billions in pesticide applications, greatly impacts the economy and more importantly on our global food supply.
Humans have been fighting pests for centuries in order to prevent these non-desirable fast spreading diseases to compete with the desired crops on nutrients and preventing its healthy growth. A major tool in the long-lasting war against pests are molecular agents we call pesticides.
Just like in human diseases such as cancer, pests evade host agents sent to kill it. This is the case for different types of weeds and fungi which developed resistance to commonly used pesticides. Yet, no new pesticide acting in a new biological mechanism was developed during the last decades. This problem poses a major threat on food supply for humans and animals.
Our Mission
Projini AgChem is discovering and developing new pesticides that interfere with the cellular machinery known as protein-protein interactions network. Such novel discoveries are much needed to grow enough food for the fast growing world population.
Our aim is to develop new pesticides acting in a new mode of action and interfere with protein-protein interactions.
ProJini Solution
In Projini we established a pesticide - discovery engine that relies on an efficient and innovative technological platform to study molecular recognition and interactions. Our platform is based on an integrative approach of computational and modeling techniques that are combined with state-of-the-art wet-lab biochemical and biophysical tools that enable rapid evaluation of the structural/chemical requirements for binding of a specific molecule to its target protein.
Classic enzyme-small molecule interaction
‘Druggable’ targets
Enzymes/protein with a well-defined binding site Assay-feasible – Substrate to product conversion
300-500 Å2
Protein-protein interaction
‘Un-Druggable’ targets
No immediate characterized binding site
Biological effect only – hard to screen
>1500 Å2