Sygnature Discovery Invests in Promising Startup, Peak Proteins

Sygnature Discovery, the UK’s largest independent provider of drug discovery expertise has invested, through it’s parent Sygil Group, in a new start-up company. The investment in Peak Proteins Ltd is part of an ongoing strategy to build and expand the Group’s extensive capabilities. The deal, which was signed in December, sees Sygil making a significant investment in the BioHub-based business at Alderley Park, Cheshire, UK.  This partnership adds protein production and crystallography to Sygnature’s current range of discovery services.

Peak Proteins was founded by Dr Mark Abbott in 2014 and has been trading since last summer. Collectively, the highly experienced team provides engineered, bespoke protein reagents and 3D atomic level structures of proteins using X-ray crystallography to enable the rational design of new drugs.

Commenting, Sygnature Discovery Founder, Dr Simon Hirst said, “Computational structure-based design is a very important part of modern drug discovery and Peak Proteins’ team of highly experienced scientists offer a rare skill set in protein production which compliments and supports our existing capabilities. This is much more than a financial investment as we will be able to share our management expertise with Peak Proteins and support their future growth.”

He continued, “Our involvement means that we can now offer protein production and crystallography alongside our client projects, or separately, and this expands our capabilities further. The two companies will also be able to work together to develop new services and technologies that will be advantageous to our clients.”

Dr Mark Abbott, Founder of Peak Proteins, said, “It is great to have the expertise and involvement of Simon and his team at Sygnature Discovery. There is a lot we can learn from their successes as we grow our business. Working together in this way will give us the necessary cash injection to accelerate our growth as well as making some important capital investments in equipment.”

Dr Mark Abbott, Dr Tina Howard and Dr Derek Ogg, of Peak Proteins, are joined by Dr Simon Hirst and Dr Stuart Onions, of Sygnature Discovery, on the Board of Directors.

About Peak Proteins Limited

Peak Proteins was formed in 2014 and started trading in mid 2015. It is based at the BioHub, Alderley Park. Although a new business, it is run by a team of mostly PhD qualified scientists each of whom has decades of experience working with proteins to enable the discovery of new drugs. Peak Proteins is able to provide engineered, bespoke protein reagents and 3D atomic level structures of proteins using X-ray crystallography to enable the rational design of new drugs.
For more information, visit: www.peakproteins.com