WHAT WE DO
Abilita Therapeutics is an innovation-driven biotechnology company focused on enabling discovery and development of drugs targeting challenging membrane proteins, including G Protein-Coupled Receptors (GPCRs) and ion channels
Most drugs are small molecules and most drug targets are proteins
60% of approved drugs target membrane proteins
Many of these drugs have limited selectivity, meaning they act on more than one protein and may cause undesirable effects
There is a pressing need for new, effective, and safer drugs to treat diseases like cancer, diabetes, inflammation and neurology
To facilitate the discovery of new drugs, scientists need access to high quality protein targets
There is still a deep technological unmet need in the discovery of therapeutic antibodies targeting membrane proteins
THE CHALLENGE
Drug discovery targeting multi-span membrane proteins is inherently difficult due to the notoriously low stability and high conformational flexibility of these target classes, especially when removed from the cellular environment.
This intrinsic characteristic of membrane proteins has greatly limited the success of protein-based small molecule screening and structure-guided drug discovery, as well as antibody discovery efforts.
Discovery processes have evolved to utilize purified protein as a reagent to enable cutting edge screening and computational methods.
Membrane protein targets have largely been left behind due to difficulties in expression and purification linked to instability. Even more so, discovery of biologics has been hampered by similar difficulties for most classes of multi-span membrane proteins.
OUR SOLUTION: ENABLED MEMBRANE PROTEINS (EMPs™)
- At Abilita Bio, we are building a powerful and fully integrated discovery platform that harnesses multiple cutting-edge technologies and methods to generate a rich pipeline of unique assets.
- Our proprietary technology leverages directed evolution to identify enhanced target variants (EMPs) that can overcome the above-mentioned challenges, yet maintain the relevant protein structure.
- EMPs will be the keystone component of downstream discovery efforts using 3 main paths. Additionally, purified and well-folded target protein enables facile hit validation assays, including binding and kinetic measurements.
ANTIBODY DISCOVERY
- Enhanced antigens and reagents for animal immunization.
- Protein-based panning of naïve or immune libraries.
- Whole-surface epitope coverage to boost hit diversity.
- Selective tuning of antigen conformation to enrich functional hits.
STRUCTURE-BASED DRUG DISCOVERY
- Conformational stability enhances cryo-EM structure determination.
- Structure-based drug discovery for hit identification and hit-to-lead optimization.
- Leveraging structural information for affinity maturation and functional refinement of antibodies.
PROTEIN-BASED SMALL MOLECULE DISCOVERY
- Modern screening enabled, including DNA-encoded libraries.
- Structural interrogation of direct binding for more sophisticated pharmacophore analysis.
- Characterization of binding properties by mass-spec affinity and surface plasmon resonance.
