Speed meets precision: Trajan set on changing drug discovery game with HDExaminer PRO

• Trajan’s new HDExaminer PRO software enables drug discovery scientists to more confidently and rapidly identify binding sites of proteins
• HDExaminer PRO is first application released within Trajan’s CHRONECT Studio platform and is designed to accelerate HDX-MS data analysis
• Traditional manual analysis methods that previously took weeks to complete can now be done in days or hours

Special Report: Drug development is a complex and time-consuming process, often hindered by the challenges of analysing vast amounts of data, however, Trajan is addressing the bottleneck.

Trajan Group Holdings’ (ASX:TRJ) HDExaminer PRO is a cutting-edge software platform designed to revolutionise hydrogen-deuterium exchange mass spectrometry (HDX-MS) data analysis.

HDExaminer PRO, previously known as AutoHX, was renamed when Trajan acquired the technology in late 2024 from Professor David Schriemer at the University of Calgary.

HDX-MS – a ‘motion sensor’ for proteins

To understand the power of HDExaminer PRO, Dr Kyle Bachus, Trajan’s vice president – pharmaceutical solutions, said it was essential to grasp the fundamentals of HDX-MS.

“Imagine trying to understand how a car engine, works,” he said.

“You could look at the parts individually, but you wouldn’t really grasp how they move and interact to make the engine run.”

He said proteins were similar – they’re complex biological machines that perform essential functions in our bodies.

“Understanding how they move and change shape is key to understanding how they work, and how we can develop drugs to target them,” he said.

Bachus likens HDX-MS to a “motion sensor” for proteins, involving three key processes:

1. Labeling – proteins are placed in a solution where they naturally incorporate a heavier form of hydrogen (deuterium) at different rates, depending on their structure and flexibility.
2. Fragmentation – the protein is then broken down into individual components (peptides), like disassembling an engine.
3. Measurement – scientists use a mass spectrometer to precisely measure how much deuterium each protein piece has absorbed to provide insights into the protein structure and function.

Overcoming the challenges of HDX-MS

HDX-MS generates massive amounts of complex data, traditionally involving significant manual intervention.

“Curating data manually is slow, tedious, and prone to subjectivity and errors,” Bachus said.

Trajan’s solution automates the HDX-MS workflow, from sample preparation to data analysis, drastically reducing the time and effort required.

Senior software developer Vladimir Sarpe explains that in classical HDX, researchers were required to independently examine hundreds or thousands of individual measurements (spectrum).

“They had to use their expertise to either accept or reject a measurement based on manually investigating the data, one spectrum at a time,” he said.

“Existing HDX software only provides an interface to make this manual process as easy as possible, but the accuracy of the conclusions drawn are only as good as their operator.”

Sarpe said the architecture of HDExaminer PRO enables proprietary extraction and analysis of data that were previously overlooked in traditional HDX methods, effectively adding a new analytical dimension.

This expanded dimensionality facilitates analysis with extra measurements from different angles, which can form a statistical consensus.

“Once those extra measurements form a statistical consensus, there is little need for manual intervention, which ultimately makes the HDX conclusions more objective, repeatable and saves time,” he said.

Validating drug targets faster

Bachus said that by automating HDX-MS data analysis, Trajan’s software was not just making the process faster but unlocking the full potential of HDX-MS, enabling researchers to make groundbreaking discoveries in biology and medicine.

“HDExaminer PRO helps scientists understand how proteins – the building blocks of our body – change shape and interact with potential medicines, a critical step in determining if or how effective a specific drug or vaccine therapy may be,” he said.

“What previously took weeks to complete will now be available in days or even hours”

Sarpe and Bachus said faster, more reliable analysis can eliminate ineffective compounds and identify those that will be more effective sooner.

This improves efficiency of the drug development pipeline and speeds up the delivery of new drugs to market.

CHRONECT Studio platform set for expansion

HDExaminer PRO fully integrates with Trajan’s existing CHRONECT Workstation HDX, which automates key experimental steps and is compatible with a wide range of mass spectrometers and lab instruments.

HDExaminer PRO is the first product in Trajan’s CHRONECT Studio, an advanced software platform focused on reducing complexity, improving accuracy, and accelerating mass spectrometry-based analysis.

Plans are underway to expand Trajan’s CHRONECT Studio platform with more tools and applications to help study how critical components of the human body interact with potential pharmaceuticals.

“There is a comprehensive roadmap of additional applications and utilities within the structural biology space that should expand the overall impact Trajan has on human wellbeing,” Bachus said.

“We believe the CHRONECT Studio platform unlocks more potential in the structural mass spectrometry end user markets.”

This article was developed in collaboration with Trajan Group Holdings, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.

This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.