Date: 2013-07-09
Type of information: R&D agreement
Compound: cancer drugs targeting deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs)
Company: Cancer Research Technology (CRT) (UK) FORMA Therapeutics (USA)
Therapeutic area: Cancer - Oncology
Type agreement: R&D
Action mechanism:
Disease:
Details: * On July 9, 2013, FORMA Therapeutics and Cancer Research Technology (CRT), the commercialisation company of Cancer Research UK, have announced a bold research initiative to discover innovative tools, technologies and therapeutic drug candidates against a variety of protein homeostasis regulators called, deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs). Under this agreement, FORMA will pair its ultra-efficient drug discovery capabilities with CRT’s expertise in translating academic discoveries through its Discovery Laboratories (CRT-DL) and the exclusive world-class academic network of Cancer Research UK Principal Investigators.
Protein ubiquitination is involved in many cellular processes and its regulation is controlled in part by DUBs. Ubiquitin “tags” proteins for degradation, and DUBs remove this tag, providing a tool for manipulating protein levels (protein homeostasis) in a cell. FORMA and CRT-DL will leverage their combined strengths to explore the protease enzymes that regulate ubiquitin-dependent pathways implicated in cancer.
As part of this agreement, a collaborative consortium will be formed consisting of FORMA Therapeutics and up to ten FORMA ADDCos (Asset Discovery and Development Company) subsidiaries, Cancer Research Technology – Discovery Laboratories (CRT-DL) and initially five Principal Investigators including:
Professors Michael Clague and Sylvie Urbé - University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK
Dr. Benedikt Kessler – The University of Oxford, UK
Dr. David Komander – Medical Research Council, Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, UK
Dr. Huib Ovaa – Chemical Biology Laboratory, Netherlands Cancer Institute, The Netherlands.
These investigators will focus on furthering the consortium’s understanding of biological and structural insights of DUBs, and assist the discovery teams to ensure the most relevant screening technologies and secondary characterisation assays are deployed for selection of lead candidates.
Financial terms: FORMA will provide research funding support and defined compensation payments for DUB-specific ADDCo programs that achieve specified milestones.
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