n March 2022, the Canadian biotechnology company Cyclica, an investment enterprise of the China Canada Angel Alliance (CCAA) managed by Zhongguancun Dahe Capital, announced that it had entered into cooperation with 10 new top academic institutions, including Duke University and Brown University, to jointly promote the research and development of small molecule drugs.
Cyclica’s vision is to promote a sustainable drug discovery pipeline. Since its inception, the company has been vigorously supporting the development of academic research, because cutting-edge academic research is the basis of drug research and development. Recently, Cyclica has established cooperation with the following academic institutions in different therapeutic fields such as oncology and neuroscience:
Oncology: Duke University, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Josep Carrera Leukaemia Research Institute, Oregon Health&Science University North Carolina State University and The University of California, San Francisco
Neuroscience: Brown University and The University of California, San Francisco
Inflammatory diseases: The University of Minnesota
Autoimmune diseases: The University of Washington
Metabolic diseases: Rutgers University
Virology/Infectious Diseases: Saint Louis University
The Cyclica Academic Partnerships Program or CAPP aims to facilitate academic research and accelerate drug discovery through the AI drug discovery platform. These cooperation will combine the professional knowledge of academic circles and research institutions in disease biology with the artificial intelligence and pharmaceutical chemistry research platform of Cyclica. The cooperation mode of risk and benefit sharing will produce new therapies with academic and commercial applications. Dr. Vern Di Biasi, Chief Partnership Officer, said: “Cyclica has benefited a lot from its cooperation with leading academic institutions. Through CAPP, we hope to bring value to the academic community. We look forward to seeing these partnerships bring promising results to patients.”
Toronto, Canada and Oxford, UK — Cyclica Inc. (“Cyclica”), a neo-biotech with the vision to advance the most robust and sustainable drug discovery pipeline, and Arctoris Ltd. (“Arctoris”), a tech-enabled biopharma company that combines its unique automation with computational approaches to progress drug discovery, have agreed to expand their partnership to progress drug discovery programs for novel neurodegenerative targets with a focus on Alzheimer’s disease. This planned expansion of the partnership follows the results from an initial engagement that yielded positive results for targets related to both oncology and neurodegenerative disease.
“Cyclica’s platform and capabilities in combination with the biological assay development of Arctoris will enable us to yield meaningful results and advance research development for patients suffering from Alzheimers and other neurodegenerative diseases. The potential of combining our two specialties is very promising and we are extremely optimistic about the impact this partnership is expected to have on patients” shares Naheed Kurji, Co-Founder, President and CEO of Cyclica.
Dr. Martin-Immanuel Bittner, MD DPhil FRSA, CEO of Arctoris, comments by sharing, “Our joint drug discovery program focuses on dual specificity inhibitors – a very promising yet also challenging modality. Cyclica is one of the leaders in this space, leveraging their structure-based and AI-directed molecule design for polypharmacology, while at Arctoris we have built a particular expertise in complex mechanistic enzymology and advanced cell-based models in neurodegeneration. This is a highly synergistic partnership, and I am excited about what we can achieve together for patients around the world in an indication area in dire need of new and better treatment options.”
Cyclica and Arctoris have long-term plans for their partnership as discussions are already underway about tackling additional therapeutic targets.
About Cyclica Cyclica advances molecules that embrace the complexity of the disease. Our work spans dozens of collaborations with large pharma and biotech and several joint ventures. We are a passionate team of biotech and pharma professionals, biologists, chemists, and computer scientists who live and labour at the intersection of our collective expertise. To learn more about Cyclica and how we partner, please visit www.cyclicarx.com.
About Arctoris Arctoris is a tech-enabled drug discovery company headquartered in Oxford and Boston. Arctoris combines its unique automation platform, Ulysses, with advanced computational approaches and a world-class team of seasoned drug hunters to guide and rapidly progress its wholly owned and partnered drug discovery programs in oncology and neurology. To learn more about Arctoris, please visit https://www.arctoris.com/.
Forward Looking Information This press release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information which include, among other things, plans to advance drug discovery programs by Cyclica and Arctoris. Such statements and information are based on management’s beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to management, and involve risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results performance or achievements to be materially different from that expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements and information. Although we believe that we have a reasonable basis for each forward-looking statement and forward-looking information contained in this press release, we caution you that these statements are based on a combination of facts and factors currently known by us and our projections of the future, about which we cannot be certain. We cannot assure you that the forward-looking statements and forward-looking information in this press release will prove to be accurate.
(From left) Meti Basiri, CMO and Co-Founder of ApplyBoard, and Jimmy Battaglia, Founder and Head of TrainHub.
Bitchener-Waterloo unicorn startup ApplyBoard has made its first acquisition, purchasing education industry training company Panda Portal.
ApplyBoard closed the deal earlier this month and has rebranded Panda Portal to TrainHub. With the purchase, the international student recruitment startup is expanding its capability to train educators and recruiters that will in turn attract more students to schools. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Ensuring recruitment officers have the knowledge they need is just one aspect of ApplyBoard’s broader mission to “educate the world.”
ApplyBoard co-founder and CEO Martin Basiri told BetaKit the addition of TrainHub helps to address one of the biggest issues in the international student recruitment industry: knowledge about far-away schools.
“The majority of [students], they have never even been in those countries. Getting information is crucial for them,” said Basiri, himself an international student when he moved to Canada with his brothers and co-founders Meti Basiri (CMO) and Massi Basiri (COO).
ApplyBoard has been focused on recruiter professional development of late, making a two-year commitment to investing at least $10 million USD in the training and enablement of the sector. The commitment includes the creation of its own counsellor course, through which it has invested $1 million USD over the last year towards the training and professional development of its recruitment partners. TrainHub expands on those capabilities.
Ensuring schools and recruitment officers have the knowledge they need to better educate international students about specific schools is just one aspect of ApplyBoard’s broader mission to “educate the world.”
“How we are doing this is to remove the barriers for students to connect to the best opportunities,” said Basiri who spoke about taking ApplyBoard’s suite of products beyond just the application process.
Over the last seven years, ApplyBoard has been a fast-growing startup focused on helping international students apply to high school and post-secondary education. Then, in 2020 and 2021, ApplyBoard began to offer language testing support, something that is often required for international students when they apply to schools in different countries. That saw ApplyBoard supporting students one step before the application process.
The startup even created ApplyProof, which enables admissions officers and immigration officials to trust the authenticity of documents, such as English test scores and letters of acceptance.
Now, Basiri said that ApplyBoard wants to help students on their entire study abroad journey.
The first example of that commitment is a product ApplyBoard launched alongside RBC earlier this year meant to make it easier for students to obtain proof of financial support – something that is required as part of the Canadian study permit application.
“You come to another country and you need a lot of services to be able to literally settle down here, and then set yourself [up] for success,” said Basiri, noting that ApplyBoard has its “eye” on a number of products that would help students in their study abroad journey – though he declined to share further details at this time.
ApplyBoard’s Panda Portal acquisition and plans to move beyond applications are fueled by $545 million CAD in financing that the startup secured over the last few years. The startup has raised more than $600 million since it was created, and claims a $4 billion valuation.
Investors like the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board and Fidelity Management & Research have been attracted to the recruitment platform, which Basiri claims is well-positioned to win in a big market.
The education industry is one that was heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. With travel restrictions and schools focused on remote learning, international student recruitment took a hit. The dip in international students hit post-secondary institutions hard as they often rely on international students to bolster their earnings.
Now, as travel returns to normal, Basiri is seeing pent-up demand from international students.
“The demand is unbelievably big … so many people that couldn’t study abroad the last few years want to do it right now,” said the CEO, noting, however, that current issues such as visas not being processed at pre-pandemic speeds are causing delays.
“But those are all transitory problems,” said Basiri, brushing the concerns aside. “It is our time. Our industry is booming from that point of view and we are well centred to help the students [with] achieving their success right now as all the urge and demand are coming.”
ApplyBoard is set to launch into its fifth market this year, making placements available in Ireland. Basiri told BetaKit that he expects ApplyBoard to become available there soon as the company has everything it needs in place to do so. The startup currently works with schools in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia.
The 1,500-person, global team now has 10 more employees with the addition of Toronto-based TrainHub, founded in 2020 by Jimmy Battaglia. Battaglia will stay on as head of TrainHub, which will remain a standalone platform. The startup brings to ApplyBoard 150 global partner educational institutions.
Amid the growth and broader vision for ApplyBoard, Basiri has spoken about the potential to take his company public. At a February event in Kitchener-Waterloo, the CEO told BetaKit ApplyBoard is ready to go public when the time is right.
Basiri noted that as ApplyBoard looks to expand it is also keeping an eye for more potential acquisitions.
“We are looking at it more broadly, from the standpoint of whatever takes the barriers of information or application barriers out,” Basiri said.
REDWOOD CITY, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–i2c Inc., a leading provider of digital payments and banking technology, today announced that it has extended its partnership with credit and personal finance management platform Credit Sesame, as the exclusive payments processor for Sesame Cash, until 2025.
“i2c is dedicated to working with disruptors like Credit Sesame who are innovating payment tools to provide users with a path to credit access, and ultimately financial freedom.”Tweet this
Sesame Cash is a free prepaid debit card that, when paired with the Credit Builder feature, helps consumers improve their overall financial wellness and credit score, through a debit and secured credit card program on the Mastercard network. One of the fastest-growing digital banking services in the U.S., Sesame Cash helps users graduate from debit to secured credit through credit-centric benefits including free daily credit score refreshes, cash rewards for improving credit and $1 million in credit and identity protection.
“We have been working with Credit Sesame since the Sesame Cash launch in 2020 and are honored to continue serving as the platform’s trusted processing partner for another three years,” said Amir Wain, founder and CEO of i2c Inc. “i2c is dedicated to working with disruptors like Credit Sesame who are innovating payment tools to provide users with a path to credit access, and ultimately financial freedom.”
“Sesame Cash was built to address the need for a more inclusive and accessible credit system for the millions of Americans with limited credit history,” said Miro Pavletic, Credit Sesame GM Global Banking. “With i2c, we’re able to provide personalized card, banking, and payment programs that allow traditionally marginalized consumers to access financial services that also work to help build their credit and increase their financial wellness. We look forward to our continued partnership with i2c as we expand Sesame Cash to millions of users across the U.S.”
Additional Sesame Cash banking features include early payday, real-time transaction notifications, easy access to funds, early direct deposit of up to two days, the ability to freeze or unfreeze the debit card in-app and virtual card integration with most major mobile wallets.
About Credit Sesame
Credit Sesame’s mission is to help consumers work toward financial stability and ultimately create better opportunities for themselves and their families. Strong credit health is inextricably linked to financial health and stability, and with the launch of Sesame Cash, Credit Sesame will help consumers manage both. Credit Sesame has helped millions of consumers improve their credit scores, increase their approval odds, lower the cost of credit and save money. Credit Sesame is funded by leading venture capital firms and strategic investors, including Menlo Ventures, Inventus Capital, Globespan Capital, IA Capital Groups, Norton LifeLock, Capital One Ventures, Stanford University, and ATW Partners among others. Credit Sesame currently operates in the U.S. and Canada.
i2c is a global provider of highly-configurable payment and banking solutions. Using i2c’s proprietary “building block” technology, clients can easily create and manage a comprehensive set of solutions for credit, debit, prepaid, lending and more, quickly and cost-effectively. i2c delivers unparalleled flexibility, agility, security and reliability from a single global SaaS platform. Founded in 2001, and headquartered in Silicon Valley, i2c’s next-generation technology supports millions of users in more than 200 countries/territories and across all time zones.
Rapidly growing advocacy organization for the responsible adoption of AI/ML technology across life sciences and healthcare enters its fourth year
Baltimore, Md. —Alliance for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare (AAIH), a 501(c)(4) non-profit advocacy and educational organization dedicated to promoting the development and implementation of AI in healthcare, has appointed a new slate of Board Members and Executive Officers for 2022.
The new officers are:
Chair, Naheed Kurji, Co-Founder, President and CEO, Cyclica
Vice Chair, Angeli Möller, Ph.D., Head of Pharma International Informatics (PIIX), Roche
Treasurer, Meredith Brown-Tuttle, RAC, FRAPS, Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, Recursion Pharmaceuticals
Secretary, Maria Luisa Pineda, Ph.D., Co-Founder and CEO, Envisagenics
Mr. Kurji and Dr. Möller will now lead the organization’s Board of Directors as it begins its fourth year. AAIH works globally with industry, academia, patient advocacy and government stakeholders to address key challenges and opportunities surrounding the adoption of AI in healthcare. AAIH operates through its standing committees to address three key areas: data quality, data access, including social equity and fairness education, and regulatory affairs – working with government stakeholders including the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA), Health Canada, and the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
“AI will continue to have a demonstrable impact on human health. Having spent the last three years ideating with my fellow charter members to establish AAIH, I’m honored to take the reins and thrilled I get to engage with an incredible team of Executive Officers and a dynamic board,” said Kurji.
Launched in January 2019, AAIH was previously chaired by John Baldoni, Ph.D., former SVP of In Silico Medicine at GSK and Brandon Allgood, Ph.D., Chief AI Officer at Valo Health. The organization has grown from 22 founding members to more than 50 companies representing the entire healthcare and life science spectrum, from drug discovery and clinical development to medical devices and AI-enabled diagnostics.
“AAIH was founded on the principle of pre-competition so that we could move the industry forward together, instead of separately. It is clear from recent collaborations that AI is no longer an emerging technology – it is and will continue to impact how healthcare is delivered to patients. This makes AAIH’s role even more essential. I am confident the incoming leadership will build on current efforts and spread our mission and vision,” said Dr. Allgood.
During Dr. Allgood’s tenure, AAIH added many recognizable industry leaders to its member roster, including Roche, Huma, CancerLinQ, nFerence, Neumora, and BenevolentAI, among others. Along with founding members, which include Recursion, Insilico Medicine, Valo Health and Johnson & Johnson, AAIH is building momentum to affect change across the globe.
“AAIH is represented by small, medium and large multinational healthcare companies united by a common belief that the ethical use of AI is transforming patient care,” said Dr. Möller. “Our leadership team’s strength is in its diversity – from gender to race, from industry expertise to practice areas and backgrounds. I appreciate the trust my industry peers have shown in appointing me Vice Chair of AAIH.”
In addition to appointed of the four Executive Officers, the AAIH Executive Committee includes:
AAIH is a partner at the upcoming ViVE, a technology conference focused on the business of transformation in healthcare. It is scheduled for March 6-9 in Miami. The conference brings together healthcare industry leaders who are shaping tech-enabled healthcare and addressing key issues in digital health innovation, including AI/ML technologies. For more information on becoming a member of AAIH, please visit www.theaaih.org.
Toronto, Canada — Cyclica Inc. (“Cyclica”), a neo-biotech with the vision to advance the most robust and sustainable drug discovery pipeline, is committed to supporting growth in academic research, the basis of numerous drug discoveries which impact patients’ lives. Recently, Cyclica has entered partnerships with the following academic institutions in the respective therapeutic areas below:
Duke University, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute, Oregon Health & Science University, North Carolina State University and The University of California, San Francisco in Oncology
Brown University and The University of California, San Francisco in Neuroscience
The University of Minnesota in Inflammatory disease
The University of Washington in AutoImmune disease
Rutgers University in Metabolic disease
Saint Louis University in Virology/Infectious disease
The Cyclica Academic Partnership Program (CAPP) aims to empower academic researchers with AI-augmented drug discovery platforms to accelerate the drug discovery process. These academic partnerships combine the expertise of academics and research facilities in disease biology with Cyclica’s AI and medicinal chemistry capabilities in a risk- and benefit-sharing collaboration model to generate novel therapeutics with academic and commercial applications.
“Cyclica has benefited greatly from partnerships with leading academic institutions, and with CAPP, we want to drive value to the academic community. We look forward to seeing the promising results these partnerships will bring to patients with unmet needs. ” Vern Di Biasi, Chief Partnerships Officer.
TORONTO, Feb. 16, 2022 /CNW/ – ACTO, the award-winning Omnichannel Education Platform for Life Sciences, today announced it received Great Place to Work® Certification for the second consecutive year after a thorough, independent analysis conducted by Great Place to Work Institute® Canada. This distinguished recognition is based on direct feedback from employees, provided as part of an extensive and anonymous survey about their workplace experience.
“Baked into ACTO’s moral code is a value we call being human,” explains Erin Arnold, Director of People & Culture at ACTO. “As simple as it sounds, what this translates to is a company culture that is built on a foundation of compassion and respect. We are committed to reaching new heights as an organization and are truly grateful to be recognized once again as a Great Place to Work, expressly because of those who make it possible — our people.”
On the heels of winning the coveted Brandon Hall Group Gold for excellence in Best Advance in Learning Management Measurement/Business Impact Tools, ACTO has much to celebrate as the team grew by 64% in 2021 across Canada, the US, India, and Brazil.
ACTO has much to celebrate as the team grew by 64% in 2021 across Canada, the US, India, and Brazil.
Employees reported a trust index score of 90% on average in credibility, respect, fairness, pride, and camaraderie, propelling ACTO’s recognition in several categories:
Nancy Fonseca, Senior Vice President of Great Place to Work® Canada, says that a great workplace is about the level of trust that employees experience in their leaders, the level of pride they have in their jobs, and the extent to which they enjoy their colleagues. “Our data shows that great workplaces benefit from stronger financial performance, reduced turnover, and better customer satisfaction than their peers. What’s more, work environments with trust at the foundation are ripe for innovation, agility, resilience, and efficiency,” Fonseca said.
Global life science companies rely on ACTO’s AI-powered SAAS platform to transform their learners’ learning journey and experience at scale. Commercial and clinical leaders leverage ACTO’s Omnichannel Education platform to educate and engage learners across the care continuum through unified educational experiences and journeys. Building an ecosystem for life sciences, ACTO holds a network of partnerships with content agencies, data providers, technology companies, and more.
About Great Place to Work
Great Place to Work is the global authority on high-trust, high-performance workplace cultures. Through proprietary assessment tools, advisory services, and certification programs, Great Place to Work recognizes Canada’s Best Workplaces in a series of national lists including those published by The Globe & Mail (Canada) and Fortune magazine (USA). Great Place to Work provides the benchmarks, framework, and expertise needed to create, sustain, and recognize outstanding workplace cultures.
SOURCE ACTO Technologies, Inc.
For further information: Media Inquiries: Wafa Sayeed Irtiza, VP of Marketing, marketing@actoapp.com
TORONTO, February 15, 2022–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Conavi Medical Inc. (www.conavi.com), a leader of hybrid imaging guidance for common minimally invasive heart procedures, plans to expand the presence of its Novasight Hybrid System in the U.S. market in 2022 under the guidance of its new leadership team.
Thomas Looby, chief executive officer, Conavi Medical, appointed in April of 2021 to focus on the company’s strategic growth plans, has set the U.S. market as the company’s near-term focus. Looby’s extensive background in leading medical device companies and developing global markets for cutting-edge technology bolsters the leadership team as they prepare for new milestones. To efficiently execute this expansion, Robert Skidmore joined as vice president of Operations in October 2021 to scale up production to meet the expected demand.
“The Conavi team is aligned on a cohesive plan to introduce and drive the value proposition of our innovative system to select early adopters and luminaries in the U.S.,” said Looby. “Our recently raised capital leaves us well positioned for operational growth. We are already ramping up manufacturing and expanding our U.S. based clinical team to support our customers.”
The Novasight Hybrid System is a new imaging platform for use by interventional cardiologists during common minimally invasive heart procedures. This patented technology is the first and only clinical system that enables simultaneous and co-registered imaging of coronary arteries with both intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) and optical coherence tomography (OCT).
Dr. Brian Courtney, chief medical officer and co-founder, Conavi Medical, said, “The clinical practice guidelines for intravascular imaging were recently updated to reflect clinical data on how intravascular imaging can improve clinical outcomes for angioplasty procedures. This is an important step in increasing the use of advanced imaging in North America.” He added, “We believe hybrid imaging with IVUS and OCT will have an important role in clinical, research and educational applications.”
Novasight Hybrid System has 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and regulatory approval for clinical use from Health Canada, and the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) in Japan.
About Conavi Medical
Conavi Medical Inc., is a privately-held company focused on designing, manufacturing, and marketing imaging technologies to guide common minimally invasive cardiovascular procedures. The Company’s patented hybrid intravascular imaging system is the first and only of its kind to combine both intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) and optical coherence tomography (OCT) to enable simultaneous and co-registered imaging of coronary arteries. Conavi is focused on driving adoption of its advanced imaging solution. For more information, visit http://www.conavi.com/.
Recently, Cylica, a Canadian biotechnology company invested by the China Canada Angel Alliance (CCAA for short) managed by Zhongguancun Dahe Capital, reported good news frequently. On February 1, Cyclica announced that Dr. Michael Palovich, a former senior medical person of GSK, had joined Cyclica as the Chief Scientific Officer, and would lead the growing drug research and development team of Cyclica to promote a sustainable and diversified drug pipeline; On February 9, Cyclica announced that it had co founded Perturba Therapeutics with Stagljar Laboratory of the University of Toronto to jointly develop drugs for protein protein interaction.
Dr. Michael Palovich, a former senior medical person of GSK, joined Cyclica as Chief Scientific Officer
Before joining Cyclica, Dr. Palovich had 24 years of drug discovery experience in GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and served as the senior director of GSK’s computer drug discovery. The drug discovery project led by him spans multiple therapeutic fields and has achieved very successful results. Most notably, the team led by Dr. Palovich developed the drug umeclidinium, which is approved by the regulatory authorities and used to treat various respiratory diseases. After joining Cyclica, Dr. Palovich will lead a growing drug research and development team to promote a sustainable and diversified drug pipeline.
Naheed Kurji, co-founder, president and CEO of Cyclica, said that, “In the past few years, I have been very honored to meet Michael. In addition to being a world-class leader in drug research and development, he is also a visionary. I have always lamented that his desire for future drug discovery and development is surprisingly consistent with Cyclica’s growth plan. Now it is increasingly clear that the future of drug research and development is in the hands of innovative biotechnology companies with data and AI technology. Michael is developing first-class drugs Our experience is just what we need from Cyclica. We continue to promote our strong drug discovery pipeline under Michael’s leadership “.
According to Dr. Palovich, “I look forward to working with the innovative team of Cyclica to promote the vigorous development of their powerful drug discovery pipeline. Finally, through our large-scale AI platform, I believe that we will benefit patients with new drugs at an unprecedented rate. Drug discovery is not easy, and our ambition is also very ambitious. But I believe that with my drug research and development experience and a world-class team, Cyclica will become a global leader A biotechnology company. I am very excited about this opportunity “!
Cyclica and the University of Toronto announced the joint creation of Perturba Therapeutics to promote a new generation of tumor biotechnology
On February 9, Cyclica announced that it had co founded Perturba Therapeutics Inc. (hereinafter referred to as Perturba) with the Stagljar Laboratory of Donnelly Centre for Cellular&Biomolecular Research of the University of Toronto to develop drug asset pipelines for protein protein interactions.
Perturba integrates the AI drug design platform of Cyclica and the biochemical detection technology based on living cells of the Stagljar experimental group, so as to explore a wide range of drug targets more quickly. Perturba is already targeting protein protein interactions to precisely treat certain cancers. The company will initially focus on promoting EGFR selective inhibitors for non-small cell lung cancer and four projects targeting small GTPase.
Naheed Kurji, co-founder, CEO and President of Cyclica, said that, “Of all human disease related proteins, more than half are considered to be untruggable 。 Therefore, many patients suffering from serious diseases can only slowly wait for the emergence of innovative therapies. Others once thought it was a target that could not be made into medicine, but we thought it might also be full of potential. Perturba is an important step in the development of new cancer therapies. We are very happy to cooperate with Professor Stagljar and his world-class laboratory to promote our common vision. “.
Dr. Igor Stagljar, a researcher at the Donnelly Center, said that, “In the past two years, my laboratory has developed two highly influential live cell screening technologies: MaMTH-DS and SIMPL. They can be used to study the interaction between proteins and identify new drug molecules. When these two technologies are combined with Cyclica’s leading AI drug design platform, we will conduct drug discovery for highly intractable targets in an unprecedented manner on a large scale. I know Naheed and Cycl The ica team has demonstrated many proof points with our platform for many years. One of the projects is the EGFR three mutants that are resistant to Oshtinib. We will continue to develop and make progress in Perturba. Another project aims at the KRAS target of carcinogenesis, which makes us confident in drug discovery for other small GTP enzymes in Perturba “.
Dr. Rick Panicucci, senior vice president of BridgeBio and long-term consultant of Cyclica, will act as the non-executive chairman of Perturba to formulate the corporate strategy. Dr. Su Dharmawardhane Flanagan, Dr. Tony Hunter and Dr. Ming Tsao have been appointed members of Perturba’s Scientific Advisory Committee. Cyclica will provide initial funding for Perturba and will seek external financing as needed.
Dr. Panicucci said that, “I have been involved in drug discovery and development for more than 25 years. I can be sure that the way of drug research and development in the future will be very different from that in the past. During my six years as a consultant of Cyclica, I have witnessed the rapid and effective promotion of drug research and development by artificial intelligence and data. Perturba has opened up a new design manufacture test score for protein targets that have been ignored for a long time by integrating AI drug design and phenotype detection Analysis (DMTA) mode “.
Toronto, Canada — Cyclica Inc. (“Cyclica”), a neo-biotech with the vision to advance the most robust and sustainable drug discovery pipeline, today launches Perturba Therapeutics Inc. (“Perturba”), a spin out from the Stagljar Lab at the University of Toronto, Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research. Perturba is advancing a rich pipeline of assets from undrugged protein-protein interactions (PPIs).
Only a small subset of biologically important drug targets are currently being explored within the pharma industry. Perturba is taking this challenge on by integrating Cyclica’s comprehensive AI-augmented proteome-wide drug design technology with two first-in-class live cell-based assays from the Stagljar Lab. With this integrated AI-augmented drug design and empirical phenotypic approach, Perturba is developing precision therapies that modulate PPIs and PPI-mediated biological processes with a focus on difficult-to-treat cancers. Perturba will initially focus on advancing two EGFR triple mutant inhibitors for non-small cell lung cancer, and four programs targeting small GTPases for various intractable cancers.
Naheed Kurji, Co-Founder, CEO and President of Cyclica indicates that “More than half of all human disease-related proteins are considered undruggable using conventional approaches. As a result, patients suffering from life threatening diseases are left waiting for treatment. What others view as “undruggable”, we see as potential. Perturba represents an important franchise in the pursuit of our cancer strategy. We’re so excited to partner with Professor Stagljar and the world class Stagljar Lab in driving forward our shared vision.”
Dr. Igor Stagljar, Professor at University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine and Principal Investigator at the Donnelly Centre, shares, “over the past two years, my lab has developed two high impact, live cell-based technologies for studying protein-protein interactions and identifying novel drug molecules – MaMTH-DS and SIMPL. Combining these two technologies with Cyclica’s world-class AI-drug design approach will usher in a new way to conduct drug discovery for highly intractable targets in an unprecedented way at scale. I’ve known Naheed and the team at Cyclica for years and jointly have shown multiple proof points using our platforms with a program targeting an osimertinib resistant EGFR triple mutant that we will be progressing in Perturba, and a program targeting an oncogenic KRAS in a separate collaboration that gave us confidence to target other small GTPases in Perturba.”
Seasoned drug developer Rick Panicucci, PhD, SVP at BridgeBio Pharma and a long time advisor at Cyclica has been appointed as non-executive Chairman of Perturba to help oversee the company’s strategy. Su Dharmawardhane Flanagan, PhD, Tony Hunter, PhD, and Ming Tsao, MD, have been appointed to Perturba’s Scientific Advisory Board. Cyclica will provide initial funding for Perturba and will seek external funding from strategic partners as required.
“I’ve been involved in drug discovery & development for over 25 years. What I can say with certainty is that the way things will be done going forward is going to be very different from how it was done before. I’ve been an advisor at Cyclica for 6 years and have witnessed first hand the power of AI and data-first approaches to drive drug discovery fast and with quality. Now, with Perturba and integrating AI drug design and phenotypic assays opens a whole new way of design-make-test-analyze at scale for target classes that have been ignored for too long,” shares Panicucci.
For further information about Cyclica, please contact: Jennifer Sacco, Vice President of Marketing and Communications jennifer.sacco@cyclicarx.com
About Perturba An integrated oncology focused biotech company for unaddressable and undrugged targets. Founded in 2021 as a venture between Cyclica and the Stagljar Lab at the University of Toronto, Perturba integrates Cyclica’s AI-augmented drug discovery platform with sensitive, live-cell drug screening assays, MaMTH-DS and SIMPL from the Stagljar lab. Perturba is developing precision therapies at scale that modulate PPIs and PPI-mediated biological processes. To learn more, please visit www.perturbatx.com.
About Cyclica Cyclica advances molecules that embrace the complexity of disease. We’re a neobiotech whose work spans dozens of collaborations with large pharma and biotech as well as several joint ventures. We are a passionate team of biotech and pharma professionals, biologists, chemists, and computer scientists who live and labour at the intersection of our collective expertise. To learn more about Cyclica please visit www.cyclicarx.com.
About the Stagljar Lab and the Donnelly Centre The Stagljar lab at the University of Toronto (http://local.biochemistry.utoronto.ca/stagljar/) is one of the world leading labs in the field of proteomics/chemical genomics, developing high-throughput technologies to facilitate the study of the protein-protein interactions (PPIs) of various human membrane proteins involved in cancer and rare genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis. The Stagljar lab is currently directing major proteomics/chemical genomics projects to map how integral membrane proteins interact to produce either healthy or diseased cells, to identify novel therapeutic targets, and to screen for novel drugs using artificial intelligence platforms, in particular to target lung, colon, breast and pancreatic cancer. In close collaboration with medicinal chemists and clinical investigators, the Stagljar lab investigates the molecular mechanisms behind challenging, unexplained observations on drugs and on pathological events.
The Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research is an interdisciplinary research institute at the University of Toronto in which scientists make fundamental discoveries in biology to improve health. Founded in 2005, the Centre is globally recognized as a leading biomedical research hub thanks to our researchers’ landmark discoveries in genetics, stem cell biology and the molecular basis of disease, as well as state-of-the-art tools in large-scale data analysis. As well as making discoveries, our researchers also strive to translate their findings into tangible advances in medicine to help patients.
