Second Prestigious BMC Grant in Under a Year
will Enable Creation and Validation of Biomarker-Driven Process for
Precisely Selecting Patients Most Likely to Respond to GPR35
Inhibition
Company Narrows Initial Therapeutic Focus to
Ulcerative Colitis with Precision Medicine Strategy for Clinical
Development
Validating Non-Dilutive Grant Funding Supports
Ongoing Fundraising Efforts as Company Continues on Path Toward
Clinic
OXFORD,
United Kingdom, July 2, 2024
/PRNewswire/ -- ThirtyFiveBio Limited, a biotechnology company
developing first-in-class small molecule inhibitors of G
protein-coupled receptor 35 (GPR35) for the treatment of
gastrointestinal (GI) disease, today announced that the company,
along with its long-standing academic collaborator, Nicole
Kaneider, Ph.D., of the University of
Cambridge, have been awarded a highly competitive Biomedical
Catalyst (BMC) grant from Innovate UK, the UK's innovation agency.
The grant, for a total of £643,371 (~$817,000), will fund preclinical research
designed to enable the company to pursue a precision medicine
approach to patient selection for the clinical development of its
first-in-class GPR35 inhibitors. While the company's unique
approach to GPR35 inhibition has potential application broadly
across GI disease and cancers, ThirtyFiveBio is focusing its
initial development activities on inflammatory GI conditions driven
by epithelial dysfunction such as ulcerative colitis.
For this research project, ThirtyFiveBio and Dr. Kaneider will
work collaboratively to identify subsets of patients who are
enriched for GPR35 inhibitor responsiveness based on their unique
genetic signatures. This will involve the deployment of
bioinformatics and multi-omics to analyze clinical datasets and
cross-reference those with preclinical data generated with relevant
cell line and unique disease model platforms. Once this blueprint
for GPR35 inhibitor responsiveness is created, the researchers will
work to validate the genetic signature in additional preclinical
studies, thus providing the company with biomarkers that can be
used for precision patient selection in planned clinical
trials.
"Receiving a second BMC grant from Innovate UK in less than a
year is incredibly validating for the ThirtyFiveBio team and the
pioneering work we are undertaking on GPR35 inhibition. As we
continue to advance our preclinical program in this area, we learn
more about the key role that GPR35 plays within the upstream causal
biology of inflammatory GI diseases. It is this opportunity to
engage at the source of disease activity that has driven our
decision to elevate conditions such as ulcerative colitis to the
top of our target indication list," said James Westcott, Ph.D., chief executive officer
of ThirtyFiveBio. "We look forward to continuing to collaborate
with Dr. Kaneider on this latest project and benefiting from her
significant expertise on the biological function of GPR35 in GI
disease. This work will be instrumental in supporting both the
advancement of our GPR35 inhibitor program toward the clinic, as
well as our ongoing fundraising efforts."
The role of GPR35 in GI diseases is genetically validated and
provides a differentiated approach to disease treatment by focusing
on underlying and unresolved epithelial and myeloid cell
dysfunction, rather than directly addressing inflammation. Several
drug developers are advancing programs designed to address the
target, though to date, virtually all these efforts have been
focused on increasing the activity of GPR35 with targeted agonists.
However, important recent scientific findings, including key
insights from the ThirtyFiveBio team, support the hypothesis that
GPR35 antagonism may represent a more appropriate therapeutic
approach by blocking unwanted GPR35 signaling. Based on this
evolved scientific perspective, supported by the company's work
with several world-leading, academic GPR35 specialists,
ThirtyFiveBio is uniquely pursuing antagonism of the target with
first-in-class small molecule GPR35 inhibitors.
Supporting the company's focus on GPR35 inhibition is a
collection of pre-clinical data generated by its scientists that
highlights the association between GPR35 mutations and GI diseases.
This includes research showing that GPR35 variants are linked to
inflammatory bowel disease, and that GPR35 expression is
upregulated in GI cancers. The company and Dr. Kaneider have also
shown that pathogenic mutations of GPR35 drive its increased
expression and function. Furthermore, study results have
demonstrated that commonly dysregulated GI-cancer genes can be
reversed by knocking out GPR35 in cancer cells. Taken together,
these findings provide compelling evidence that hyperactive genetic
mutations within GPR35 contribute to a range of GI disease
processes, and that inhibiting GPR35 activity may have therapeutic
utility in these diseases.
About ThirtyFiveBio
ThirtyFiveBio Limited is a biotechnology company developing
first-in-class small molecule inhibitors of G protein-coupled
receptor 35 (GPR35) for the treatment of gastrointestinal (GI)
disease. The company has built scientific thought leadership in the
biology of GPR35 and the role that it plays in GI disease,
including digestive tract colitis and cancers. ThirtyFiveBio has
leveraged its fully enabled drug discovery platform to identify
multiple unique families of first-in-class small-molecule GPR35
inhibitors that it is advancing through lead optimization
activities. Created by M:M Bio and Canaan Partners, the company has
raised $20 million in seed financing
to date. ThirtyFiveBio is headquartered at the Innovation Centre on
Milton Park, a key science precinct south of Oxford, UK. For more information, please
visit: www.thirtyfivebio.com
About Innovate UK
Innovate UK drives productivity and economic growth by
supporting businesses to develop and realise the potential of new
ideas. We connect businesses to the partners, customers and
investors that can help them turn ideas into commercially
successful products and services and business growth. We fund
business and research collaborations to accelerate innovation and
drive business investment into R&D. Our support is available to
businesses across all economic sectors, value chains and UK
regions. Innovate UK is part of UK Research and Innovation. For
more information visit
https://www.ukri.org/councils/innovate-uk/
Contacts:
ThirtyFiveBio
James Westcott
Chief Executive Officer
P: +44 (0)1235 644980
enquiries@30fivebio.com
Vida Strategic Partners (on behalf of
ThirtyFiveBio)
Tim Brons
(Media)
415-675-7402
tbrons@vidasp.com
View original content to download
multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/thirtyfivebio-awarded-innovate-uk-biomedical-catalyst-grant-to-advance-gpr35-inhibitor-program-with-initial-focus-on-inflammatory-gastrointestinal-disease-ulcerative-colitis-302187228.html
SOURCE ThirtyFiveBio