ProScript: A new name and a new direction

Six months ago, a young company, MyoGenics, changed both its name and its direction following its discovery of a new mechanism of action for regulating inflammatory response and cell division. Thomas Maniatis of Harvard University, the lead scientist and founder, established that nuclear factor kappa B, a member of the NF-kB family of molecules, is a key transcriptional activator of pro-inflammatory genes.

Maniatis' work complements research conducted over the past 15 years by a second founder of ProScript Inc., Alfred Goldberg, also of Harvard. Goldberg helped elucidate the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway, which facilitates the processing of intracellular proteins. Ubiquitin is a marker protein that tags intracellular proteins destined for processing with ubiquination enzymes. Ubiquinated proteins then are recognized and processed by the proteasome, a structure located in cellular cytoplasm...