It’s important to lay strong foundations for successful drug discovery at this first stage of the process. Our integrated target identification and validation platform combines AI with expert insights, and rigorous lab validation to guide targets through robust evaluation, ready for hit discovery.
Validated, high-quality hits, delivered through integrated technologies and expert collaboration, give you a confident starting point for faster drug discovery.
Turning promising leads into clinical candidates with speed, precision, and the scientific expertise to generate high-quality data and deliver real patient impact.
Discover precise insights into brain neurochemistry with Sygnature Discovery's in vivo microdialysis and cOFM services. With over 20 years of expertise, we design bespoke studies that reveal how compounds modulate neurotransmitter systems in health and disease. Using UHPLC/HPLC with electrochemical detection or mass spectrometry, we deliver robust PK/PD data to support confident CNS decision making.
Delivering integrated, modality-agnostic drug discovery to tackle complex biology, accelerate development, and advance innovative therapies with confidence.
Advancing next-generation ADCs through payload-focused design, integrated expertise, and collaborative innovation to deliver safer, more selective therapies.
Driving biologics innovation through integrated design, structural biology, and multidisciplinary expertise to accelerate next-generation therapies from concept to clinic.
Combining deep therapeutic expertise with translational insight to design strategies, reduce risk, and accelerate discovery programs toward clinical success.
Accelerating oncology drug discovery through integrated expertise, innovative modalities, and translational insight to deliver candidates with real clinical impact.
Driving immunology and inflammation drug discovery through tailored assays, translational models, and integrated expertise for faster clinical success.
Advancing CNS drug discovery through integrated models, translational biomarkers, and multidisciplinary expertise to overcome complexity and accelerate therapeutic innovation.
Designing and advancing differentiated small-molecule therapies for obesity and diabetes through integrated expertise, mechanistic insight, and translational strategies.
Inobrodib, an exciting, first-in-class oral anti-cancer drug in clinical development by CellCentric, was collaboratively designed, synthesised and supported on its pre-clinical journey by an integrated project team at Sygnature Discovery. Inobrodib is now showing promising results in Phase I and II trials for multiple myeloma and other cancer types.
AI Meets Expertise: A hybrid Workflow For Modern Target ID | QIAGEN & Sygnature
In drug discovery, generating targets is no longer the challenge.
The real question is how to identify the few worth investing months of research and significant resources to pursue.
Hear expert perspectives on how AI, pathway analysis and scientific expertise are shaping modern target identification.
It’s important to lay strong foundations for successful drug discovery at this first stage of the process. Our integrated target identification and validation platform combines AI with expert insights, and rigorous lab validation to guide targets through robust evaluation, ready for hit discovery.
Validated, high-quality hits, delivered through integrated technologies and expert collaboration, give you a confident starting point for faster drug discovery.
Turning promising leads into clinical candidates with speed, precision, and the scientific expertise to generate high-quality data and deliver real patient impact.
Delivering integrated, modality-agnostic drug discovery to tackle complex biology, accelerate development, and advance innovative therapies with confidence.
Advancing next-generation ADCs through payload-focused design, integrated expertise, and collaborative innovation to deliver safer, more selective therapies.
Driving biologics innovation through integrated design, structural biology, and multidisciplinary expertise to accelerate next-generation therapies from concept to clinic.
Combining deep therapeutic expertise with translational insight to design strategies, reduce risk, and accelerate discovery programs toward clinical success.
Accelerating oncology drug discovery through integrated expertise, innovative modalities, and translational insight to deliver candidates with real clinical impact.
Driving immunology and inflammation drug discovery through tailored assays, translational models, and integrated expertise for faster clinical success.
Advancing CNS drug discovery through integrated models, translational biomarkers, and multidisciplinary expertise to overcome complexity and accelerate therapeutic innovation.
Designing and advancing differentiated small-molecule therapies for obesity and diabetes through integrated expertise, mechanistic insight, and translational strategies.
Inobrodib, an exciting, first-in-class oral anti-cancer drug in clinical development by CellCentric, was collaboratively designed, synthesised and supported on its pre-clinical journey by an integrated project team at Sygnature Discovery. Inobrodib is now showing promising results in Phase I and II trials for multiple myeloma and other cancer types.
Target identification and validation is the first stage of drug discovery: finding a biological target that could be modulated to treat a disease, then confirming through lab testing that acting on it produces a genuine therapeutic effect. It typically takes 2–6 months and determines whether a project is ready to progress to hit discovery.
From early target ideation to validated assets ready for hit discovery, we help you move faster and reduce risk, bringing clarity and confidence to every decision.
Target Identification and Validation is essential for reducing risk and ensuring therapeutic success.
Our integrated target identification and validation (TI/TV) platform combines AI-driven prioritization, expert insights, and rigorous lab validation to guide targets through robust evaluation and into hit discovery and lead development.
Target Identification
We use a semi-automated, human-in-the-loop approach, powered by AI and machine learning, tailored to your modality and therapeutic focus. Whether you’re pursuing first-in-class or best-in-class, we score and prioritize targets with precision.
Core Components:
• AI‐driven literature and patent analysis using our in-house developed, AI-driven analytics tool, AI4Lit, coupled with Qiagen IPA, Reaxys, and OpenTargets.
• Expert-guided multidisciplinary team target selection: strategic, data-driven and goal-aligned.
• Strategic target selection for commercial success, efficacy, and safety.
Our Target ID workflows help narrow down to the most promising target to progress to Sygnature’s Target Validation platform, where we assess the connection between target manipulation and disease efficacy.
Target Validation
This critical phase, typically 2–6 months, confirms whether modulating your target yields therapeutic effects, with endpoints selected to support in vivo translation and helping prevent late-stage failure.
Our validation solutions reflect modern methods of drug discovery including:
• Functionalin vitro assays using tool compounds and genetic approaches to assess target biology and pharmacology.
• Expression profiling with mRNA/protein distribution analysis, correlated to disease progression.
• Advanced cell-based models, including 3D cultures, co-cultures, and patient-derived iPSC systems.
• Biomarker identification and validation, via transcriptomics (qPCR, RNAseq), proteomics, flow cytometry and high-content imaging.
After validation, we ensure a seamless transition into hit identification and discovery-enabled chemistry campaigns.
Integrated TI/TV Workflow
Our five-phase workflow builds from target selection to integrated drug discovery, tailored to your project needs. Direct entry at stages 2, 3, or 4 is supported, and modular design aligns with timelines and budgets. Collaboration is central throughout.
Our methodology can be applied:
• To any therapeutic modality, including: small molecules, peptides, ADCs, PROTACs, molecular glues.
Accelerates prioritization in data-rich landscapes.
Expert-led
Multidisciplinary teams spanning therapeutic areas and modalities.
Lab-validated
Rigorous experimental confirmation before progression.
Deliverable-focused
Clear, actionable rationale and risk analysis.
Continuously evolving
New tools and alliances, including Bullfrog AI integration.
“Our collaboration with Sygnature Discovery has led to successful target identification in our TPD discovery. Their computational science/ bioinformatics/biosciences/ chemistry-integrated approaches allowed us, within a few months, to
unravel the current status of target protein landscape from a certain perspective, and to identify target proteins from our desired angle. We were particularly impressed by Sygnature’s exceptional dedication to success and the thorough
science-based discussions we had with them, which we believe are the key to all successful collaborations.”
Pharma Client
Meet our Team
Meet the experts leading our Target Identification & Validation solutions. Discover the experience and innovation that drive success in drug discovery.
Max Mirza is a neuroscientist who has worked in Biotech, Big & Midsize Pharma for over 25 years, including NeuroSearch, Pfizer, and Mundipharma. He has worked on multiple assets
that have progressed to all stages of clinical development, including Phase 3, in areas of neuroscience, pain, metabolic
disorders, and infectious disease. He was a founder and CSO of the Biotech Saniona (Nasdaq, Stockholm) and
consults for VCs and investment teams on translational and clinical approaches in neuroscience. He has a PhD in
Neuroscience from the Institute of Psychiatry, University of London.
We bring together a dynamic blend of new talent and experienced pharmaceutical industry experts from a round the world, delivering excellence across every stage of discovery.
Delivering validated, high-quality hits through integrated technologies, strategic insight, and expert collaboration to advance your program with confidence.
Transforming early leads into clinical-quality candidates through integrated expertise, rapid decision-making, and optimized strategies for safety, potency, and exposure.
From high -quality starting points to optimized leads, we unite fragment screening, structural biology, computational chemistry and medicinal chemistry to keep your program moving forward .
Delivering co-located, multidisciplinary drug discovery programs that combine speed, precision, and scientific rigor to advance candidates with confidence.
Target validation typically takes 2–6 months. This confirms whether modulating your target produces a genuine therapeutic effect within a safe window, before you commit to hit discovery
Yes. Our target validation platform is designed to run independently of your own lab capacity, using functional assays, expression profiling, cell-based models, and biomarker work to build the evidence you need.
We design ADCs to deliver compounds directly to the site of action, reducing off-target toxicity. Our medicinal chemistry expertise ensures stability while maintaining potency, so any compound that enters the systemic circulation after lysosomal clearance and cell death is rapidly eliminated.
We take confidentiality seriously throughout target identification and validation. Client data is managed using secure, access-controlled systems and file-sharing platforms, supported by ISO 27001-certified information security processes, continuous monitoring, and robust backup and recovery measures.
No. Sygnature runs no drug discovery programs of its own, so there’s no risk of your confidential target or program direction competing with our own commercial interests.
Yes. Target identification and validation is the first stage of our five-phase integrated drug discovery workflow, so a validated target can progress directly into hit discovery, lead optimization, and beyond, with the same team.
Target identification is the process of finding and prioritizing a promising biological target. Target validation is the following step: confirming, through lab evidence, that acting on that target actually produces the intended therapeutic effect.
Yes. Our workflow supports direct entry at stages 2, 3, or 4, so if you’ve already identified your target, we can begin at validation rather than starting from scratch.
Every recommendation is supported by a structured target assessment package with a comprehensive scoring matrix complemented with a manually curated in-depth review of top targets. The package integrates human genetics, disease biology, omics and pathway analysis, target tractability and druggability assessments, available tool compounds, safety profiling, and competitive landscape evaluation. This evidence-led target prioritization approach helps clients make confident drug discovery investment decisions.
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Peak Proteins, NuChem Sciences, and SB Drug Discovery have now fully integrated with Sygnature Discovery.
