Striving to leverage in-house expertise in organic chemistry and assay development, Echelon Biosciences is now structured to create first-class reagents for biological and drug discovery research, focused on characterizing signal transduction pathways that transmit messages into a cell and its nucleus. The firm has a complex and diverse history: dba as Albion Biologicsand as Echelon Research Laboratories, in 2005, EBI was purchased by Aeterna Zentaris (NAS: AEZS) for its MEP anti-infectives, PI3-Kinase small molecule program, catalog business, and scientific expertise. In late 2007, Frontier Scientific Incorporated (FSI) - based in Logan, Utah - purchased EBI. Specializing in porphyrin and boron chemistry, FSI opened the doors for expanded research. EBI initially had come out of research done at the University of Utahs Center for Cell Signaling, and aims to further the science of lipid cell signaling and critical metabolic enzymes to provide new and viable targets for the development of potential drugs and diagnostics for cancer, diabetes, inflammation, infections, and cardiovascular disease. Drug delivery tools have recently expanded to include enzymes key to bacterial survival, permitting the identification of enzyme inhibitors and signaling antagonists to create a new generation of pharmaceuticals. The firm is now exploring application of assay technologies towards microdevices and microfluidics for faster drug screening.
