by Dr Louise Ryan Murphy, Managing Director, ProAxsis
ProAxsis is a commercial protease biomarker-led research company supporting drug development and clinical research through specialist biomarker insights.
The company was founded in 2013 with a simple ambition: to translate world-leading research into practical tools that could improve the management of chronic diseases. Building on pioneering research at Queen’s University Belfast, co-founders Professors Lorraine Martin and Brian Walker developed the patented ProteaseTag® technology to measure active proteases, important biomarkers of infection and inflammation.
Supported by proof-of-concept funding and investment, this scientific breakthrough evolved into a globally recognised technology serving researchers, pharmaceutical companies and clinical trial programmes around the world.
Today, our proprietary ProteaseTag® technology is used to assess the efficacy of new drugs, enhance clinical trial design and understand chronic diseases more effectively.
Since stepping into the Managing Director role, my focus has been on refining our commercial strategy and repositioning ProAxsis for growth, whilst also maintaining my COO responsibilities overseeing all company operational activities. I work closely with our dedicated team, pharmaceutical and biotech companies, contract research organisations (CROs) and research partners to ensure our technology can support drug development and clinical research.
Over the last 18 months, ProAxsis has undergone significant change and during that time I have focused on strengthening our foundations for growth; we have refined our commercial model, strengthened our supply chain, relocated to the Randox Science Park, expanded our team of scientists and built an experienced leadership and Clinical Advisory Board.
My focus now is on expanding our commercial relationships, growing revenue and developing new products that can take us into larger markets and new disease areas.
I’ve been with ProAxsis for over four years, and what attracted me to the company was the opportunity to build on exceptional science and help translate it into a growing commercial business.
Success for me is seeing our technology and talented team of scientists make a tangible difference beyond the laboratory, whether that means helping researchers generate more meaningful data or supporting the development of new medicines that ultimately improve patients’ lives.
ProAxsis is based in the Randox Science Park in Antrim, and I believe Northern Ireland is a great place for a life-sciences business to be based.
We benefit from access to highly skilled scientific talent from two great academic institutions, Queen’s University and Ulster University, and we have strong academic links. Our location within the Randox Science Park positions ProAxsis within one of Northern Irelands leading life sciences environments, strengthening connections across the regional biotech ecosystem.
Northern Ireland has a growing life sciences sector, supported by Invest NI and organisations such as HIRANI and the Future Medicines Institute (FMI). The FMI is a £55 million industry-led collaborative initiative that aims to bring together industry, academia and healthcare to accelerate the development of new drugs and diagnostics. ProAxsis is a founding member, and the initiative will support our strategy to expand our technology into new disease areas.
Northern Ireland also offers strategic access to both UK and EU markets, as well as connections to broader international life sciences networks.
Our business operates across three commercial areas: catalogue products, clinical research services and bespoke R&D.
We develop specialist research products that allow scientists to measure active protease biomarkers with a high level of specificity. These include NEATstik®, a rapid point-of-use test and our ProteaseTag® immunoassays that support the measurement of key protease biomarkers and unlock deeper insights into disease activity.
We also work directly with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, CROs and research institutes. We provide services that range from analysing clinical-trial samples to developing bespoke biomarker assays and collaborating on research programmes tailored to a client’s specific needs.
What links everything we do is data. We help researchers to better understand what is happening inside the body, providing the evidence needed to evaluate new medicines, design more effective clinical trials and, ultimately, accelerate the development of promising new treatments.
Our core innovation is our patented ProteaseTag® technology. We have developed a range of smart molecules, known as ProteaseTags®, which have the capacity to rapidly and selectively bind active proteases.
Proteases are enzymes that play an essential role in the body, but when normal control of their action is lost, they can attack healthy tissue and drive major illness such as bronchiectasis, COPD and cystic fibrosis.
Conventional assays used for protease measurement are either not specific for the protease of interest or they measure total protease levels with no indication of the fraction associated with active protease, which would provide a more biologically relevant indication of disease.
The ProteaseTag® technology changes that. A ProAxsis assay containing a ProteaseTag® designed for a protease of interest e.g. neutrophil elastase will selectively bind to the active form of the target enzyme, generating more relevant datasets for disease research and drug development studies.
We are particularly excited because the technology has applications beyond laboratory-based research. It has the potential to be incorporated into point-of-care tests and remote patient monitoring tools.
One exciting project currently under way is a collaboration with Imperial College London to evaluate our rapid NEATstik® test as a diagnostic tool that could change how COPD is monitored. Instead of waiting for laboratory results, our NEATstik® technology can detect a key biomarker of lung inflammation and infection in around 10 minutes.
If this study is successful, it could create opportunities for use in COPD pharmaceutical clinical trials. Over the longer term, our ambition is to develop a next generation NEATstik®, a simple home test that could help COPD patients monitor and manage their disease more effectively.
For us, it is one of the biggest commercial opportunities in our pipeline and the study results are expected by 2027.
Today, we are focused on respiratory disease, and that is where we have built our commercial momentum. However, what is really exciting is that our technology is not confined to respiratory disease. In principle, a ProteaseTag® can be designed for any protease target of interest. Proteases are involved in many diseases, so our technology has the potential to be applied across multiple diseases over time.
Cancer is the next area we are exploring, but that is really just the beginning. As we identify new biomarkers, there is scope to expand into a much broader range of diseases.
