Category: Our News

Challenge: Drug discovery by high-throughput screening of candidate compounds is usually limited in efficacy as their functional potential is not assessed in relevant biological systems, such as patient cells, during this first selection; new platforms are needed that enable functional testing within specific biological systems. An example of protein trafficking that would benefit from such platforms is Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (ATD), an orphan disease, whose behaviour in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is complex, rendering the design of therapeutic candidates difficult. Solution:…

Challenge: Drug discovery by high-throughput screening of candidate compounds faces challenges and needs the development and validation of specific platforms. An example of complex diseases that would benefit from such platforms is cystic fibrosis, a lung disease caused by genetics and aggravated by air pollution. An immediate response of bronchial epithelial cells to pollution is the downregulation of…

Competition:EXPLORE Program 2015Funding:$300,000 / 2 yearsBeginning:April 2016 Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) play a crucial role in nearly all cellular processes. Protein complexes have been implicated in many debilitating human diseases, from cancer to viral infections. PPIs generally contain broad, shallow, and relatively featureless binding sites, hence they have historically been perceived as ‘undruggable’ targets in drug…

Challenge: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) accounts for 15 to 20 % of all breast cancer patients, but for about 25 % of all breast cancer deaths. There is currently no targeted treatment for TNBC, while only about 30 % of TNBCs are sensitive to conventional therapies. In addition, no more than 50 % of HER2-positive…

Challenge: Ovarian cancer is a leading cause of cancer death in women. Only a fraction of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer will respond to current therapies. In order to better tailor treatment to each patient, personalized medicine has turned to biomarkers that statistically evaluate the chances of a drug to be effective for a patient.…

Challenge: Acute myeloid and lymphoid leukemias (AML and ALL) are lethal hematologic cancers that affect both children and adults. Despite major progress in the treatment of pediatric AML and ALL, relapse and disease progression in patients with high-risk disease remain common problems. Furthermore, current drugs and radiotherapy treatments are associated with a wide array of…

Challenge: Cancer remains a leading cause of death in the developed world. Endocrine tumors derived from hormone-producing cells are particularly problematic. This type of tumor can over-produce hormones, which can induce serious complications. Early and accurate diagnosis is currently very difficult, and treatments of late-stage tumors are ineffective. There is, therefore, an urgent need to…

Challenge: G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) represent attractive biomarkers and therapeutic target classes in cancer research because their aberrant expression and activity are closely correlated with different stages of tumour initiation and progression. The development of small molecule anticancer drugs targeting GPCRs has so far proven to be quite challenging. Thus, there remains a need to…

Challenge: In the last decade, cancer genomics has shown that not all patient tumours are identical, and conversely that they will not respond similarly to anticancer agents. The key, therefore, is personalized (or precision) medicine whereby specific drugs will be given to a patient carrying a gene that will make their tumours sensitive to such drugs.However,…

Challenge: In recent years, a growing number of cancer patients have been treated with therapies targeting specific genetic alterations present in their tumors. Generally, this is done in combination with traditional chemotherapeutic agents that represent the standard of care. However, a systematic analysis to identify the most appropriate combination of chemo and targeted therapy to…