PhoreMost Introduces GlueSEEKER Platform for Discovery of Molecular Glue Degraders
May 21 2024 - 4:04AM
Business Wire
New drug discovery platform integrates
computational approaches with molecular biology for development of
novel degrader therapeutics
PhoreMost Ltd., a leading UK biopharmaceutical company unlocking
the next generation of drug targets, today announced the
introduction of GlueSEEKER™. The new phenotypic screening platform
expands the Company’s capabilities in this emerging therapeutic
modality to support the systematic discovery and development of
novel molecular glue degraders (MGDs) for targeted protein
degradation (TPD).
MGDs are an important new class of small molecule drug that
exhibit a therapeutic effect by enhancing the affinity between
proteins, inducing new interactions or stabilising a molecular
complex. Similar to bivalent degraders like PROTACs, MGDs induce
close proximity between target and effector proteins and are able
to exploit the cell’s proteostasis mechanisms to cause target
degradation. This approach has great potential in the treatment of
diseases from cancer to neurodegeneration and beyond.
PhoreMost has developed the GlueSEEKER platform to overcome the
challenges in discovering this class of molecule and provide a
systematic discovery approach to address undruggable or otherwise
unaddressed therapeutic targets. Expanding on the Company’s
established SITESEEKER® degrader discovery platform, GlueSEEKER
uses computationally designed intramolecular libraries to create a
vast diversity of surface-edited E3 ligases. Phenotypic screening
is then deployed to identify specific sites and precise changes
resulting in induced degradation activity, integrating deep
computational approaches with novel biological discovery.
The new GlueSEEKER platform has broad-ranging applications and
is able to identify induced degradation events for almost any
nominated neosubstrate and ligase pair, expanding the scope for
this important modality and providing the Company and its partners
with opportunities for novel therapeutic pipeline development. The
technology innovation expands the Company’s activities in TPD and
complements a growing internal pipeline of novel ligase-based
bivalent degraders as they progress to development candidates.
Dr Benedict Cross, Chief Technology Officer, PhoreMost,
said: “GlueSEEKER builds on our expertise in the TPD space,
offering an innovative solution to the rational discovery of new
MGDs and for molecular glues beyond the degradation modality. This
unique and powerful approach is a substantial augmentation of our
existing platform technologies, providing new opportunities to
unlock MGDs to help us and our partners to bring new precision
medicines to fruition faster.”
For more information about GlueSEEKER, please visit:
https://www.phoremost.com/science
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