Protease Screening and Profiling Solutions

Proteases are a class of enzymes which perform proteolysis, the mechanism of digesting or cleaving long chain proteins into smaller fragments by severing the peptide bonds that hold them together. Trypsin, a serine protease secreted by the pancreas, is commonly used in cell tissue culture to cleave the bonds that cells use to adhere to a flask.
 
Proteases also play a major role in disease. HIV-1 protease is essential to the viral replication process. MMP-9, a matrix metallopeptidase, plays a role in angiogenesis and is a therapeutic target for cancer. Proteases have an important role in many signaling pathways, therefore it can be difficult to achieve selectivity when targeting protease active sites.
 
Eurofins Discovery’s broad portfolio of over 50 protease targets span across the serine, cysteine, aspartic, and metalloprotease families and provides the foundation for our services in screening and profiling. Key protease families and targets included in our services are highlighted below.