Discovery: Functional Identification of Novel Activities (FIoNA)

Prolias uses specialized ProSpectrum Libraries™ (PSL-1) of peptide ligands for discovery of new, active entities through a technology called Functional Identification of Novel Activities, or FIoNA. In FIoNA, the library is incubated with a starting material, unbound proteins are removed by washing, and the beads with bound proteins are analyzed in disease-relevant biological or biochemical assays, including assays for cell proliferation, cell death, and enzyme activity. All of the proteins are present in the assay, and all are simultaneously analyzed, but only those associated with a desired activity are selected.

Beads associated with a desired activity are collected, the ligand sequenced by MS or Edman degradation, and a specific resin synthesized to purify the active protein. Discovery with FIoNA is unbiased, in that all proteins, regardless of sequence or functional class are present in the assay and therefore eligible for selection. The identity of neither the active protein nor of the ligand to which it binds are known at the outset.