CU Innovations and Core Bio Announce Strategic Partnership

DENVER and SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 16, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Core Biotherapeutics, a platform biotech company focused on creating the next generation of drugs to transform the lives of patients with cancer and other life-threatening diseases, has entered into a collaboration with the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus (CU Anschutz) to expand the benefits of their therapeutic approach to Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) patients. This partnership was facilitated by CU Innovations, the CU Anschutz department tasked with bringing together industry partners, entrepreneurs, investors, and CU Anschutz researchers to translate technology to improve outcomes for patients worldwide.

Core Bio is pioneering the field of transcriptional network therapeutics to design and develop powerful new treatments for a wide array of cancers, neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular and fibrotic disorders. Transcription factors (TFs) are major regulators in the body that are able to turn on or off gene expression programs, and they interact with one another in coordinated, hierarchical networks. In diseases such as cancer, these transcriptional networks become altered and promote the progression of the disease.

Previous therapeutic approaches have only focused on individual TFs, leading to limitations in the breadth and robustness of their efficacy. "TFs are highly dynamic and operate as complex networks.  When one TF is inhibited, there is another one that is ready to compensate in its place," states Core Bio's CEO Julien Mamet, PhD. Core Bio's network science-driven approach allows the company to identify the core group of TFs driving pathological network status and develop drugs that target these TFs to reprogram the entire network toward cell death. These drugs are named hyperOligos and act as sponges to inhibit the core group of TFs promoting a given type of cancer.

Core Bio's strategic relationship with CU Innovations has paved a road for collaboration with the CU Anschutz School of Medicine laboratory led by Professor Craig Jordan – one of the top Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) research groups in the world. "Partnering with CU Innovations and specifically, the Jordan Lab marks a significant milestone in our commitment to expanding our discovery platform and hyperOligo technology into some of the most aggressive cancers, which are plagued with relapse and poor therapeutic options," said Mamet. "The greatest challenge in treating AML patients is acquired resistance. We often see patients initially enter a remission, but cancer is very adaptable and when we inhibit a single target the disease simply finds an alternative path to progress," added Clay Smith, MD, Medical Director of CU Innovations.

Core Bio leverages more than 15 years of expertise targeting TFs in the clinic from its co-founders, who are regarded as pioneers in the field of transcriptional network therapeutics. Core Bio is on a mission to overcome the limitations of current therapies and transform the lives of patients.

About University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus

The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus is a world-class medical destination at the forefront of transformative science, medicine, education and patient care. The campus encompasses the University of Colorado health professional schools, more than 60 centers and institutes and two nationally ranked independent hospitals - UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital and Children's Hospital Colorado - that treat more than two million adult and pediatric patients each year. Innovative, interconnected and highly collaborative, the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus delivers life-changing treatments, patient care and professional training and conducts world-renowned research fueled by over $690 million in research grants. For more information, visit www.cuanschutz.edu.

About CU Innovations

CU Innovations is the CU Anschutz technology transfer office located on the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus that seeks to connect researchers, industry partners, and investors focused on translating cutting-edge research into technologies that improve patient outcomes.

About Core Biotherapeutics

Core Bio uses network science to design drugs targeting the pathological transcription factor networks that drive diseases like cancer, neurodegenerative, cardiovascular and fibrotic disorders. Core Bio is committed to improving the lives of patients by developing a pipeline of transformational therapeutics with robust and predictable efficacy and reduced side effects across a broad range of diseases.

For more information about this partnership, please contact:

Aoife Cullen, Business Development, CU Innovations
Email: [email protected]

William Martin, COO, Core Biotherapeutics
Email: [email protected]

SOURCE Core Biotherapeutics