Platform & Pipeline

Realizing the Promise of Miniproteins

Imagine an Ideal Next-Generation Therapeutic Modality

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Specificity

selective binding to the target; no non-specific tissue binding

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Safety

no harmful breakdown products; non-immunogenic

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Developability

well behaved in vitro and in vivo; simple to formulate and administer

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Patentability

protect from potential competitors, fast followers and biosimilars

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Versatility

high tissue penetration, and ability to precisely control serum half life and in-tissue residency

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Modularity

plug-and-play multivalent constructs or chemical conjugation

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Stability

able to withstand high temperature, solvent, acid, proteolysis, denaturants, etc.

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Affordability

low cost manufacturing using existing infrastructure

Miniproteins:

Combining the Best Features of Small Molecules and Biologics

Miniproteins:

Combining the Best Features of Small Molecules and Biologics

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peptide that folds into a highly stable structure

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optional disulfide bonds

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protein surface confers high solubility, no deamidation, and resists oxidation

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multivalent constructs via genetic fusion to the termini

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comprised of canonical amino acids and without post-translational modifications

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entirely novel
composition of matter

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negatively charged to reduce
off-target tissue binding

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ability to synthesize chemically
or through fermentation

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low molecular weight leads to improved tissue penetration and lack of immunogenicity

From Concept to Candidate

Our proprietary platform has enabled us to repeatedly engineer miniproteins ready for preclinical development in 3-12 weeks.

in silico design

de novo design of miniprotein binders

screening & discovery

yeast & phage
display

characterization

automated production
& biophysics

optimization

“AWESSM”
deep saturation mutagenesis

lead molecules

in silico design

in silico design
screening & discovery
characterization
optimization
lead molecules

de novo design of miniprotein binders

  • Unique “pre-designed” libraries accelerate discovery of hits with ideal drug-like properties
  • Targeted design enables conformationally selective binding to a desired epitope; especially helpful for GPCRs

Screening & Discovery

in silico design
screening & discovery
characterization
optimization
lead molecules

yeast & phage display

  • Because our miniproteins are genetically encodable, we’re able to use yeast and/or phage display to screen libraries >109
  • Yeast display allows for more precise selection campaigns, while our automated phage method enables massive parallel screening capacity

Characterization

in silico design
screening & discovery
characterization
optimization
lead molecules

automated production & biophysics

  • Our highly-automated protein production and purification platform has the capability to make ≤ 1,000 miniproteins per week
  • We perform biophysical characterization in high-throughput, including circular dichroism spectroscopy to measure structure and stability, and surface plasmon resonance to measure binding activity

Optimization

in silico design
screening & discovery
characterization
optimization
lead molecules

“AWESSM” deep saturation mutagenesis

  • The ability to optimize hits into leads is a longstanding challenge in drug development, as it requires the ability to predict and test many variants, often empirically
  • We solved this challenge in a novel way by combining artificial intelligence and synthetic biology, creating a highly differentiated method that rapidly yields optimized miniproteins while also producing vast amounts of useful data

Lead Molecules

in silico design
screening & discovery
characterization
optimization
lead molecules
  • We have the ability to design, discover and optimize miniproteins for multiple targets in parallel
  • Because drug-like properties are designed into the miniproteins from the start, every molecule with optimized activity is ready to begin pre-clinical studies

Advancing a Broad and Deep Pipeline

Our proprietary drug discovery engine has already enabled us to validate hits against  >100 targets with unparalleled speed. With initial proof of concept in oncology, inflammation, and metabolic diseases, we are currently advancing our own pipeline while also exploring partnerships to realize the full value of our innovations.