On October 14, 2021 DarwinHealth, Inc. reported a scientific research collaboration using its biomarker enrichment strategies for trials ( BEST platform ) to find new biomarkers to guide trajectories translational of several oncological molecules developed by Prelude Therapeutics (Press release, Prelude Therapeutics, OCT 14, 2021, View Source [SID1234591260]).
Schedule your 30 min Free 1stOncology Demo!
Discover why more than 1,500 members use 1stOncology™ to excel in:
Early/Late Stage Pipeline Development - Target Scouting - Clinical Biomarkers - Indication Selection & Expansion - BD&L Contacts - Conference Reports - Combinatorial Drug Settings - Companion Diagnostics - Drug Repositioning - First-in-class Analysis - Competitive Analysis - Deals & Licensing
Schedule Your 30 min Free Demo!
As part of this collaboration, DarwinHealth will use its proprietary, quantitative, systems biology-based algorithms, CLIA-approved technologies, and validated principal regulator (MR) protein and tumor checkpoint approaches to identify novel protein-based biomarkers that will add significant precision to the selection of the patient cohort for clinical trials to be conducted at Prelude’s discretion in hematologic and solid tumors.
"The goal of this biomarker-focused collaboration," explained Professor Andrea Califano , Clyde Chair and Helen Wu , Chair of the Department of Systems Biology at Columbia University.and co-founder of DarwinHealth, "is to assess and characterize the global and tumor-specific mechanisms of action of molecules in the Prelude pipeline in order to identify new biomarkers likely to associate these agents with reactive patient cohorts. In addition, the collaboration will mechanically characterize the potential therapeutic opportunities for molecules in the Prelude pipeline targeting various oncogenic pathways in several hematologic malignancies and solid tumor subtypes, as selected by Prelude Therapeutics. The study will be based on the VIPER algorithm to characterize the activity of these various compounds against key protein modules (tumor checkpoints) of the primary regulator (MR) necessary for the viability of subtype-specific tumors. "
"The BEST initiative will provide precise and actionable compound and tumor information to assess the potential of molecules in the Prelude pipeline to reverse the activity of subtype-specific tumor checkpoints," explains Dr. Mariano Alvarez , Scientific Director of DarwinHealth. "The aim of these studies is to generate a range of validated compound / tumor subtype / biomarker alignments that represent evidence-based and mechanism-based roadmaps for biomarker development and patient selection to potentially speed up clinical studies. "
As part of the BEST initiative, DarwinHealth will provide a comprehensive read on the potential clinical value of certain molecules in the Prelude pipeline in a range of tumor types. Through quantitative modeling and biomarker-centric translational pathways, DarwinHealth will also help design in vivo validation studies to take advantage of key opportunities that may not be apparent with conventional technologies.
"The collaboration with BEST addresses one of the critical unmet needs of the biotechnology and biopharmaceutical spaces focused on cancer drug discovery, namely the development of biomarkers that are highly predictive of clinical response to compounds, whose efficacy final may be the result of an incompletely decipherable range of drug effects both on and off target directed at multiple targets of the regulatory programs that underlie cancer addictions "noted Dr Gideon Bosker, CEO and Co-Founder of DarwinHealth. "These uncertainties lend themselves to the extension of the concept of biomarker beyond the primary (ie high affinity) target of a drug, to multiprotein classifiers identified by our computational and integrative experimental methodologies. "
In particular, new multiprotein classifiers identified by the BEST platform have already been reported by DarwinHealth for multiple myeloma (N Engl J Med 2019; 381: 727-38. View Source NEJMoa1903455 ) and diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DBLC) (British Journal of Haematology; August 02, 2021, View Source ).
These technologies are ideally suited for identifying mechanistic alignments between drug candidates and cancer patients, based on the ability of the drugs to inactivate patient-specific MR proteins that are necessary to maintain tumor status. Importantly, these findings can be quickly transformed into precision human, biomarker-based clinical trials and commercial development.