Collaboration to Identify New Druggable Targets

Biopharmaceutical company PhoreMost and The Wistar Institute are working together to identify and de-orphan novel targets in cancer, aging and the immune system.

 The majority of disease driving targets are currently considered ‘undruggable’, because at first glance they appear structurally resistant to chemical intervention, especially when viewed outside of a cell in a static crystallised form.  PhoreMost’s ‘phenotypic’ screening platform, SITESEEKER exploits the dynamics of a live-cell environment to uncover hidden druggable target sites across the entire human genome; this information is then converted into novel small-molecule therapeutics.

Under the partnership the screening platform will be applied to high-throughput phenotypic assays developed by the researchersfor a multitude of undruggable targets of interest in cancer, aging and immunology, in order to find new therapeutic options in these unmet disease areas.  Wistar will also provide PhoreMost with specialist disease biology knowledge and drug mode-of-action studies on a project-by-project basis to support downstream drug discovery efforts.

Dr Torrance, CEO of PhoreMost, commented: “PhoreMost and Wistar share the belief that innovative small biotechs working together with nimble research institutes could represent a new model for drug discovery to increase the diversity of new therapies being developed and bring them to patients at lower costs.  I am delighted the Wistar is a founding member in this mission and encourage other academic and clinical institutes to join us in this mission.”    

Heather Steinman, Ph.D., M.B.A., Wistar vice president for Business Development and executive director, Technology Transfer, said: “PhoreMost is a cutting-edge discovery partner that will be collaborating closely with Wistar to uncover previously unidentified therapeutic targets that may prove useful for advancing innovative therapies.  We are eager to be partnering with PhoreMost to fully utilise their phenotype-based screening platform technology to rapidly identify new therapeutic candidates.”