SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Amgen
(NASDAQ:AMGN) and MBC BioLabs today announced that BigHat
Biosciences and Trilo Therapeutics have each been awarded an Amgen
Golden Ticket to MBC BioLabs. The companies will receive priority
admission or renewal for one year of lab bench space with access to
core facilities at the MBC BioLabs life sciences incubator,
including access to Amgen's scientific experts and business leaders
to help advance their scientific programs. Amgen is a proud sponsor
of MBC BioLabs, assisting high-potential and innovative early-stage
life science and biotech companies accelerating development of new
therapies to improve human health.
The 2020 Amgen Golden Ticket winners were chosen by a team of
scientific leaders who evaluated the strength and novelty of their
scientific rationale, subject matter expertise, and business plan
viability.
"Amgen addresses important scientific questions to advance care
and improve the lives of patients with serious diseases, including
oncology, inflammation and cardiometabolic diseases, among others,"
said Flavius Martin, vice president
of Oncology, Inflammation and Site Head at Amgen South San
Francisco. "BigHat Biosciences and Trilo Therapeutics are working
on promising early-stage innovation that address serious illnesses
such as cancer, autoimmune diseases, infectious diseases, and
others, which is why funding these companies and providing them the
necessary lab space to move their science forward is so important.
We are happy to support their scientific efforts as they tackle
complex research challenges that potentially address critical unmet
medical needs for patients. Congratulations to both companies and
their scientific entrepreneurs."
BigHat Biosciences:
BigHat Biosciences is an
early-stage Bay Area startup reimagining antibody discovery and
engineering to create better antibodies faster and undertake novel
designs far beyond what's possible today. BigHat designs antibodies
using an agile, multi-objective, and data-driven platform that
integrates a high-speed wet lab with AI and machine learning.
"We are grateful to receive Amgen's Golden Ticket Award," said
Mark DePristo, chief executive
officer of BigHat Biosciences. "Amgen's support for our facility at
MBC BioLabs' and access to their biologics R&D group will help
accelerate our mission to radically improve antibody design using
the latest techniques in machine learning and synthetic
biology."
Trilo Therapeutics:
Trilo Therapeutics is focused on the discovery of novel inhibitors
of protein-protein interactions for therapeutic purposes. Our
Trilomer® platform of peptidomimetic binders allows for the
targeted inhibition of disease-causing proteins, for the treatment
of cancer, autoimmune diseases, infectious diseases, and others. In
a revolution of therapeutic approaches, Trilomer® peptidomimetic
binders combine the cell permeability and degradation resistance of
small molecules with the large surface area of antibodies, allowing
them to target both intracellular and extracellular targets. Due to
their fully synthetic modular building blocks, affinity
optimization and structure-activity relationships (SAR) can be
performed much more rapidly than either traditional medicinal
chemistry or targeted mutagenesis of biologics. Our Degradomer®
class of targeted protein degraders expands on the Trilomer®
concept, allowing highly specific degradation of disease-causing
proteins.
"We are very excited to have won Amgen's Golden Ticket," said
Keith Wilson, chief executive
officer, Trilo Therapeutics. "Amgen's interest in our approach
provides important additional validation for our work to develop
novel therapeutics to currently undruggable targets. We look
forward to interacting with Amgen's scientific and therapeutic
experts to help move Trilomer® therapies into the clinic. MBC
BioLabs' facilities and support will be instrumental in fostering
Trilo's rapid research progression."
"Amgen continues to be a steadfast and integral partner in
supporting entrepreneurial scientists at MBC BioLabs. Now with
their fifth round of Golden Ticket awards, Amgen has helped propel
10 promising companies forward," said Doug
Crawford, General Manager at MBC BioLabs. "When Amgen first
partnered with us in 2015, MBC BioLabs was a single site in
San Francisco hosting 40
companies. With their support and the support of our other
partners, we have now grown MBC BioLabs to three sites serving over
90 companies. By the end of the year that number will swell to over
100. We and the companies we host are deeply appreciative of
Amgen's commitment and leadership in early innovation."
About Amgen
Amgen is committed to unlocking the
potential of biology for patients suffering from serious illnesses
by discovering, developing, manufacturing and delivering innovative
human therapeutics. This approach begins by using tools like
advanced human genetics to unravel the complexities of disease and
understand the fundamentals of human biology.
Amgen focuses on areas of high unmet medical need and leverages
its expertise to strive for solutions that improve health outcomes
and dramatically improve people's lives. A biotechnology pioneer
since 1980, Amgen has grown to be one of the world's leading
independent biotechnology companies, has reached millions of
patients around the world and is developing a pipeline of medicines
with breakaway potential.
For more information, please visit us at www.amgen.com or follow
us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
About MBC BioLabs
MBC BioLabs is dedicated to helping
life-science startups succeed. By renting space as small as a
single bench and providing entrepreneurial scientists with access
to millions of dollars of equipment, we allow companies to be fast,
focused, and frugal. We now have three sites: one in the Dogpatch
neighborhood in San Francisco and
two campuses in San Carlos. Each
site has a complete molecular biology core facility that allows
companies to do experiments on day one, not year one. We have
partnerships with leading pharmaceutical and life-science companies
as well as a built-in venture capital firm, Mission BioCapital.
These partnerships provide our entrepreneurs with valuable insights
about where to focus their efforts and accelerates the innovation
pipeline. Our labs have truly enabled awesome: since our opening in
2013 we have helped launch and grow 194 companies. These companies
have brought 53 programs to the clinic, produced 13 approved
diagnostics, and raised over $4.5
billion. For more information,
visit www.MBCBioLabs.com.
CONTACT:
Amgen
Jessica Akopyan
805-447-0974
jakopyan@amgen.com
MBC BioLabs
Linda Eng
415-348-8287
linda.eng@mbciolabs.com
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SOURCE Amgen