Fluorogent is a spin-off based on NCL’s technology created under Venture Center’s “Lab2Mkt” program. The company wishes to develop fluorescence-based reagents and diagnostic kit useful for quantitative detection of biomarkers such as cysteine and homocysteine, and glutathione (GSH), which play essential roles for regulating the redox balance of many biological processes.
Cysteine is a metabolic product of homocysteine and a precursor of the antioxidant GSH. A deficiency of cysteine leads to diseases such as decreased hematopoiesis (creation of new blood cells), leukocyte loss, psoriasis, slowed growth, liver damage, skin lesions, hair depigmentation, edema, and so on. Elevated levels of homocysterine have been recognized as an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. This is also associated with various diseases or clinical conditions, which include Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, end-stage renal disease, osteoporosis, and type II diabetes.
To elucidate the complicated relationship between Cys, Hcy, and GSH and investigate the function of each biothiol in various physiological processes, the simultaneous quantitative detection of these three biothiols is very necessary.
The company has received Biotechnology Ignition Grant by DBT-BIRAC, GoI