Drug discovery biotech firm Chemotargets and the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) have signed a strategic agreement to accelerate the development of new targeted therapies that respond to unmet clinical needs in different fields including cancer.
Barcelona, October 26th, 2021. The development of new treatments for diseases requires the identification of potential targets – for example proteins or enzymes – that are critical for the onset and progression of the disease. After finding a candidate, researchers need to screen thousands of potential molecules that might interfere with the target and test for their effectiveness and safety. This ‘bench to bedside’ process is expensive and takes many years of research before benefiting patients.
Recent technological advances in artificial intelligence, advanced computing and mass-scale data analysis is accelerating the drug development process, sometimes reducing the timescale of the process by years.
Chemotargets, a global leader in the field, develops computational platforms for the design, optimization and safety evaluation of drugs. The biotech firm’s cutting-edge computational technologies can rapidly design potential new drug candidates for therapeutic targets that are difficult to treat and for which no identified drugs currently exist.
The new partnership will leverage the CRG’s fundamental knowledge on the complexity of life, as well as its expertise in identifying potential new therapeutic targets in emerging fields of cancer biology. 70% of the CRG’s projects with translational potential focus on the validation of new therapeutic targets for the treatment of different diseases such as cancer, fibrosis, eye diseases, blood diseases or diseases that cause inflammation.
The first project under the agreement involves a new target identified by Isabelle Vernos’ group in the CRG’s Cell and Developmental Biology research programme. The Vernos group has world-leading expertise on fundamental biological processes such as cell division with a focus on the mechanisms of spindle assembly and chromosome segregation fidelity, processes that when dysregulated can be associated with infertility and cancer.
“The CRG’s strengths lie in our profound understanding of fundamental aspects of human biology, our world-leading expertise in the design and engineering of proteins, and our state-of-the-art technological platforms in genomics, proteomics, screening, tissue engineering and organoids. Partnering with a high-profile company like Chemotargets will be a vital boost to leverage our know-how and put it to use for drug discovery projects for the benefit of patients in need,” says Luis Serrano, director of the CRG.
“We welcome this collaboration and look forward to working with the CRG on several levels. In addition to world-class fundamental biology, the infrastructure to rapidly design medications specific for the phenotype and genotype of both disease and patient in collaboration with the CRG brings a critical new dimension to Chemotargets’ growing internal pipeline.” Dr. Scott Boyer, CEO, Chemotargets.
Chemotargets was founded in 2006 as a spin-off of the systems pharmacology research group of Dr. Jordi Mestres under the auspices of the IMIM Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute. The company, with headquarters located in the Barcelona Science Park (PCB), offers state-of-the-art artificial intelligence-driven methodologies with predictive capabilities in the fields of virtual screening, chemical design, pharmacology and drug safety. Its goal is to help the pharmaceutical industry accelerate drug discovery and development programs, while improving cost-effectiveness and safety.
The CRG is a biomedical research center based in Barcelona. Created in December 2000, the CRG is home to more than four hundred interdisciplinary scientists focused on understanding the complexity of life, from the genome to the cell and the entire organism. The CRG is a center with a unique research model, focused on recruiting internationally renowned group leaders. The CRG is a member of the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST) and a CERCA centre within the research system of the Catalan Government.
Media contacts:
Chemotargets: Dr. Scott Boyer, CEO
PCB: Azucena Berea, Press Officer
CRG: Omar Jamshed, Press Officer
