The QLattice® discovery engine developed by Abzu has accelerated scientific exploration and understanding again, this time for Peptomyc®, a biotech focused on inhibiting the cancer-causing protein Myc.
Built on over 20 years’ research led by Laura Soucek, co-Director of the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology’s (VHIO) Preclinical and Translational Research Program and co-founder and Chief Executive Director of Peptomyc, Omomyc (OMO-103) is a therapeutic mini-protein which targets and inhibits the Myc oncogene.
The Myc oncogene is persistently expressed in Burkitt lymphoma as well as many cervix, colon, breast, lung, pancreatic, and stomach cancers, making it one of the most sought-after drug targets in cancer. Until Peptomyc’s successful clinical trial with OMO-103, Myc was thought to be undruggable.
Peptomyc used the QLattice and Abzu’s expertise in patient stratification to reveal early predictive response-biomarkers to treatment with OMO-103 in metastatic patients. The analysis by the QLattice was conducted on a very small clinical trial of 22 patients.
“Partnering with Abzu and using the QLattice increased our ability to really take advantage of all our clinical results to find unexpected and extremely valuable data that we could have missed otherwise,” says Laura Soucek, co-founder and Chief Executive Director of Peptomyc.
“By helping scientists in understanding treatment response earlier, we’re enabling them to bring drugs to market faster,” says Marco Salvatore, Head of Target and Biomarker Discovery at Abzu. “This is an extraordinary achievement for Peptomyc, and we’re thrilled to have contributed to this scientific progress.”
OMO-103 is ready to move to a phase II study early 2023.
About Abzu.
Founded in 2018, Abzu® builds trustworthy AI to tackle complex challenges for the world’s leading companies. Abzu established itself as a global leader in explainable, rational, and safe AI in the pharmaceutical industry, contributing to new discoveries in disease understanding and RNA therapeutics. Today, Abzu’s technology accelerates new insights and understanding in pharma R&D and transforms critical and complex business processes for enterprise operations.
Abzu has offices in Copenhagen and Barcelona, and has raised €13.3M in total funding to date. Abzu has been mentioned in Gartner® research, from Market Guides for AI Trust, Risk, and Security Management to CoolVendor™, and is the winner of several awards, including the 2023 “Best HealthTech” Nordics Award at the Nordic Startup Awards. For more information, visit www.abzu.ai.
About Peptomyc.
Peptomyc is a company focused on the development of a new generation of cell penetrating peptides (CPPs) targeting the Myc oncoprotein for cancer treatment. The company was founded in December 2014 and it is based on Dr. Soucek’s scientific research in Omomyc (the best direct Myc inhibitor known to date) over the last twenty years.
To learn more, visit www.peptomyc.com.
