INDIGO Biosciences Develops Two New Progesterone Receptor Ortholog Assays

State College, PA (11 July 2022) – INDIGO Biosciences announced today the expansion of its portfolio of ortholog assays with two new progesterone receptor assays. INDIGO’s newest offerings include reporter assay systems for Cynomolgus Monkey Progesterone Receptor (NR3C3, PGR, PR) and Rabbit Progesterone Receptor (NR3C3, PGR, PR), the first rabbit ortholog assay in INDIGO’s portfolio.

“INDIGO’s cell-based assays help researchers make better decisions about a chemical’s biological activity as well as potential species differences,” said Dr. Jack Vanden Heuvel, INDIGO’s Chief Scientific Officer. “With the addition of these new products, we can offer researchers more than forty different ortholog assays across six different species including monkey, dog, mouse, rat, zebrafish, and now—rabbit.”

INDIGO’s nuclear receptor assays are particularly useful during the drug-discovery process, when researchers are evaluating compounds with the potential to become therapeutic drugs. Many of these compounds function by targeting specific nuclear receptors. Because humans and animals may share many of the same nuclear receptors, animal models are sometimes used to better understand how a compound might affect nuclear receptor activity. However, due to differences between human nuclear receptors and those of different animal models, it is important to select a model that is the most representative human surrogate.

Cell-based ortholog reporter assays are a scientific tool used to aid this decision-making process. Data from these assays can help scientists plan their research based on whether a particular animal model is predictive of a human response. Cell-based ortholog assays can also help them better understand the human relevance of data gathered from animal models. This can provide important early indications of a compound’s effectiveness, unwanted effects such as toxicity or drug-drug interactions, and therefore its potential for progressing to further development and clinical testing.

INDIGO’s cell-based ortholog reporter assays are available both as all-inclusive kits and as a screening service performed by INDIGO. To accommodate researchers’ varying needs, the kits are available in different formats including 3 x 32 and 1 x 96 assay formats for screening small numbers of test compounds, as well as custom bulk reagents for high throughput screening applications.