BridGene Biosciences Announces Research Collaboration with the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre to Discover Targets and Small Molecule Drug Candidates for Ovarian Cancer

SAN JOSE, Calif., Dec. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- BridGene Biosciences, Inc., a biotechnology company using a unique chemoproteomic technology to discover and develop small molecules for high value, traditionally undruggable targets, today announced a research collaboration agreement with the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (Peter Mac), a world leading research, education, and treatment center in Melbourne, Australia.  Under the collaboration, Peter Mac and BridGene will establish a drug discovery program harnessing Peter Mac's ovarian chemoresistance phenotypic screening and BridGene's proprietary IMTAC™ (Isobaric Mass Tagged Affinity Characterization) Chemoproteomics platform to discover new targets and small molecule drug candidates for the treatment of chemoresistant ovarian cancer.

The drug discovery program will be led by Dr. Kaylene J. Simpson, Associate Professor and Head of the Victorian Centre for Functional Genomics at Peter Mac, Dr. Elizabeth Christie at Peter Mac, and Dr. Wolf Wiedemeyer, Biology Director at BridGene Biosciences. BridGene will have exclusive rights to develop and commercialize the drug candidates that emerge from the research program. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

"This collaboration with researchers at Peter Mac represents an important milestone for BridGene to develop a novel drug discovery strategy, that combines phenotypic drug discovery (PDD) and target-based drug discovery (TDD). The new approach will efficiently link new drugs, new targets and diseases to create new treatments, and by doing so further validate the power behind our chemoproteomics technology," stated Ping Cao, Ph.D., Co-founder and CEO of BridGene Biosciences.

Dr. Cao continued, "Phenotypic screening is a potent drug discovery tool that examines compounds in cellular or animal disease models to find those that cause a desirable change in phenotype of disease-related cells and can lead to the discovery of new compounds to treat disease. However, the researchers face considerable challenges identifying the targets (driving the disease) of the compounds, without which, it is difficult to develop the compounds into drugs. BridGene's IMTAC™ Chemoproteomics platform combines a carefully designed tagged covalent library of small molecule drug-like compounds, live cell screening and quantitative mass spectrometry to identify the targets that bind to the compounds (obtained from phenotypic screening) in live cells and their relative binding affinity, so as to discover new targets that can drive diseases. We believe combining IMTAC™ with phenotypic screening can lead to fast and efficient discovery of compounds capable of eliciting  disease reversal and the identification of the biological targets of those compounds, and by doing so change the treatment paradigm for patients with chemoresistant ovarian cancer and other difficult to treat diseases."

BridGene is using the IMTAC™ platform in collaboration with several biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, and to develop its own internal pipeline. The company is pursuing early-stage programs targeting potential treatment for several forms of cancer and anticipates filing an Investigational New Drug (IND) application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2023.

Associate Professor Simpson stated, "We are excited to be working with BridGene to help advance the development of new therapies for ovarian cancer. Collaborations between academic research organizations and the biopharmaceutical industry play a key role in advancing science and informing drug development to the benefit everyone involved, from discovery-oriented scientists to therapeutic-oriented companies. Such collaborations are a crucial element of our history and our mission."

About Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
The Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre (Peter Mac) is a world leading cancer research, education and treatment center and Australia's only public health service solely dedicated to caring for people affected by cancer. The center has over 3,200 staff, including more than 700 laboratory and clinical researchers, all focused on providing better treatments, better care and potential cures for cancer. For more information, visit https://www.petermac.org/.

About BridGene Biosciences
BridGene is a biotechnology company focused on discovering and developing innovative small molecules that drug traditionally undruggable targets, providing new paths to treat diseases. By using its proprietary chemoproteomic platform, IMTAC™, BridGene is able to screen small molecules against all proteins in live cells to discover drug candidates for high value and previously undruggable targets. For this purpose, BridGene takes advantage of its proprietary, diverse library of tagged, drug-like small molecules. The ultimate goal is to enable breakthrough small molecule drug discovery and to expand the mechanisms to treat diseases, with targets previously inaccessible to small molecules. BridGene can perform IMTAC™ screening for both covalent and non-covalent molecules and discover new targets for disease treatments by deconvoluting phenotypic screening hits, setting the company apart from its peers. The company is advancing a diversified pipeline of first-in-class drugs for targets in multiple disease areas. For more information, visit http://bridgenebio.com/.

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SOURCE BridGene Biosciences