AI-powered drug discovery: update (IV)
AI-powered drug discovery: update (IV)
MetaphysicalCells: A newsletter about Science, Technology and AI Drug Discovery
This article is part of a series of articles dedicated to AI-drug discovery progress of drug candidates in preclinical and clinical phase. For previous articles:
“All states of consciousness, no matter how mystical, ecstatic or divine, are gloriously born through the protoplasmic activity of the brain.”
By Abhijit Naskar, Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a scientist who found himself by getting lost
Index for “AI-powered drug discovery: update part IV” 📇
Acelot
Molomics acquired by VeriSIM Life
neoX Biotech
Nobias Therapeutics
Novorex
ReviveMed
Precisionlife
Base Immune
Landos Biopharma acquired by AbbVie
Eleven Therapeutics
Anima Biotech
Arctoris
⭕ Acelot Inc
Acelot (US) is a development stage biopharmaceutical company focused on therapies for neurodegenerative disorders. Acelot’s platform combines generative AI, molecular dynamics simulations and proprietary assays to discover small molecules that restore the homeostasis of misfolded proteins (where no crystal structures of the target exist) in various diseases such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), frontotemporal dementia (FTD), and a variety of other neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
They have a pipeline of hit-to-lead discovery compounds across multiple indications, along with an IND-ready candidate for ALS. Acelot’s first development candidate, ACE-2223, is a first-in-class orally bioavailable small molecule that will undergo IND-enabling studies in 2024.
ACE-2223 disrupts the misfolded forms of TDP43 and restores functional TDP43 (Modulating ALS-Related Amyloidogenic TDP-43307–319 Oligomeric Aggregates with Computationally Derived Therapeutic Molecules).
It acts upon the misfolded conformations of TDP43 found across various patient populations, including ALS, FTD and Alzheimer’s. ACE-2223 has excellent brain penetrance and ADME properties.
Acelot also has a robust discovery pipeline.
AC0107 is a new molecule incorporating structural characteristics of known amyloid β-protein (Aβ) inhibitors, blood-brain barrier permeability and limited toxicity (Inhibiting and Remodeling Toxic Amyloid-Beta Oligomer Formation Using a Computationally Designed Drug Molecule That Targets Alzheimer’s Disease).
Their platform was invented by UCSB Computer Science Professor Dr. Ambuj Singh.
⏺️ Molomics acquired by VeriSIM Life Inc
Molomics was a small-molecule drug discovery company that leveraged proprietary AI technology to design more efficacious and safer therapeutics to achieve higher successes in clinical trials and was acquired by VeriSIM Life in 2022 (VeriSIM Life Announces Acquisition of Molomics Biotech). Founded in 2015 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, Molomics integrated AI with Human Collective Intelligence (HCI) to determine novel chemical structures with high therapeutic activity and superior pharmacological properties of developed or marketed drugs, advancing the treatment of Parkinson's Disease to develop a drug that addresses Levadopa Induced Dyskinesia, a movement disorder that affects Parkinson patients. Molomics’ technology will seamlessly integrate into VeriSIM’s 'virtual drug development engine', BIOiSIM.
VeriSIM Life (founded in 2017 by Dr. Jo Varshney, a veterinarian with a Ph.D. in genomics and cancer biology) is a company building AI enabled biosimulation models combining chemical and biological modeling along with AI and ML techniques and data in order to provide a Translational Index™, that can predict how drugs will affect patients and optimize portfolio management as well as increase clinical success. The BIOSIM platform is offering:
scalable models from data from thousands of compounds across 7 species,
earlier insights since can be used before preclinical animal trial start,
AI and mechanistic models,
great translatability,
a continuous improvement process to iterate on data stability, improved models and an always up-to-date software service, and
flexibility of the platform, generating customer-ready tools that allow for the development of custom models and validations within weeks.
On April 26, 2023, VeriSIM partnered with Clarivate (a global leader in connecting people and organizations to intelligence they can trust) to de-risk drug development. The collaboration combines VeriSIM Life's unique approach with Cortellis Drug Discovery Intelligence™ by Clarivate, to provide pharmaceutical and biotech companies with R&D insights to de-risk and accelerate drug discovery and avoid late-stage failures during clinical trials. Clarivate—the company which calculates journal’s impact factor using data from the Web of Science—offers the Cortellis Drug Discovery Intelligence™ to provide pharmaceutical and biotech companies with R&D insights to de-risk and accelerate drug discovery and avoid late-stage failures during clinical trials.
In April 2024, VeriSIM Life announced the availability of AtlasGEN™ Novel Drug Designer, which is the first and only platform that combines generative chemical discovery with biological validation to compress drug candidate selection and reduce costly experimental research dramatically. AtlasGEN is the natural extension of the BIOiSIM platform. The accuracy of BIOiSIM has been validated in multiple studies, and by clients worldwide.
VeriSIM Life raised a total of $20.77M.
🔳 neoX Biotech Inc, 北京星亢原生物科技有限公司
neoX Biotech (2018, China) is a next-generation biotech company specializing in computational drug design for innovative therapeutics. Through an in depth characterization of protein-protein interaction (PPI), neoX has developed a highly sophisticated platform for novel drug discovery, the MetaPPI platform for:
MetaPPI neoBiologics (for antibodies like Project IDs: NXA01, NXA02, NXA03, NXV01, NXC02, NXC05, NXC03, NXV02, NXC03).
On October 23, 2023, neoX presented the latest results on the CD24 monoclonal antibody preclinical candidate NXA01, considered potentially neoX’s first proprietary asset to enter the clinic. NXA01 exhibits differentiated characteristics by selectively binding to tumor cells while avoiding binding to normal cells.
For NXV01, NXV011 ➡️ Discovery and characterization of EGFR x cMET bispecific nanobody drug conjugates with potent anti-tumor activity.
For NXC03, NXC02, NXC04, NXC01, NXC05 ➡️ Directed Therapeutic Cytokine Engineering Powered by Computation and Wet Lab Experimentation.
NXC03, an AI-designed, affinity-attenuated IL-21 mutein with half-life extension enhances antitumor immunity.
MetaPPI neoDegrader (for protein degraders like: NXD07, NXD01, NXD02, NXD26, NXD24).
neoX Biotech raised a total of $110M.
🔲 Nobias Therapeutics Inc
Nobias Therapeutics (2020, US) is integrating clinical, molecular and genomic datasets, to craft a more precise and interconnected portrait of pathologic processes, potential therapeutic targets and optimal molecules and tools to modulate those therapeutic targets, utilizing cutting-edge DL tools, clever algorithms and a little bit of math to interrogate rich clinical data including genomic and molecular data sources (deep phenotyping).
Nobia’s platform, Nobias WorkbenchTM, applied from early ideation, insight development, chemical development to optimization, has already delivered two candidate breakthrough therapies for rare pediatric diseases:
NB-001 for 22q11DS (Phase 2)
22q11.2 Deletion Syndrome (22q11DS) is associated with delayed or incomplete development of several body structures or systems and is also strongly associated with neuropsychiatric conditions, including inattention (ADHD), anxiety, autism and schizophrenia/psychosis. Nobias is developing an investigational metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR) modulator for some of the neuropsychiatric symptoms of 22q11DS. They have now completed enrollment of a multi-center, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled Phase 2 crossover trial.
On October 10th, 2023, Nobias Therapeutics announced topline data from a Phase 2 clinical trial of NB-001 (fasoracetam), a treatment for the neuropsychiatric symptoms associated with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome ("22q11DS") in children: Results from the multi-center, randomized, placebo-controlled crossover trial demonstrated the safety and tolerability of NB-001, as well as robust efficacy trends that further support evaluation in a registrational clinical trial.
NB-002 for Vascular Anomalies (Pre-clinical)
Vascular Anomalies (VAs) are a collection of rare, potentially life-threatening diseases caused by abnormal and/or dysregulated growth of arteries, veins, capillaries and lymphatics, resulting in symptoms that significantly impact quality of life and may be fatal or life-threatening. Nobias’ hospital partner discovered that mutations in a cellular stress response pathway led to overexpression of MEK in certain vascular anomaly patients, recognizing the therapeutic role of MEK inhibition in the treatment of specific VAs (ARAF recurrent mutation causes central conducting lymphatic anomaly treatable with a MEK inhibitor). After extensive testing and using both in vitro/in vivo models and proprietary in-house in silico models, Nobias has selected a MEK inhibitor for further development.
IND-enabling studies are ongoing.
Nobias Therapeutics has raised a total of $3.8M.