Sutro Licenses "Click Chemistry" from The Scripps Research Institute

SAN FRANCISCO, June 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Sutro Biopharma today announced that it has signed a licensing agreement with The Scripps Research Institute and will have access to "click chemistry," a modular synthetic approach that allows the assembly of new molecular entities by efficiently and reliably joining two molecular units together stably and irreversibly. The agreement with Scripps Research provides Sutro with a worldwide license to apply click chemistry for the synthesis of novel therapeutic protein candidates by utilizing Sutro's biochemical protein synthesis platform to incorporate one or more of the "click" components into a peptide or protein chain.

The click chemistry approach was developed by Nobel Laureate K. Barry Sharpless, Ph.D., the W.M. Keck professor of chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute, and describes synthetic chemistry tailored to generate substances. This is done by joining, or clicking, reactive molecular building blocks together selectively and covalently. Click chemistry allows the further design of different types of therapeutic agents, including antibody therapeutics, peptide therapeutics and various small molecules.

"Combined with Sutro's powerful platform, 'click chemistry' will further extend our capability to engineer customized therapeutics with pharmacologic properties that are optimized for each specific application," said Trevor Hallam, Ph.D., chief scientific officer of Sutro. "The agreement will expand our armamentarium as we continue to develop novel protein therapeutics with our partners and advance our own pipeline of next-generation antibody drug conjugates."

The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

About The Scripps Research Institute

The Scripps Research Institute is one of the world's largest independent, not-for-profit organizations focusing on research in the biomedical sciences. Over the past decades, Scripps Research has developed a lengthy track record of major contributions to science and health, including laying the foundation for new treatments for cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, hemophilia, and other diseases. The institute employs about 3,000 people on its campuses in La Jolla, CA, and Jupiter, FL, where its renowned scientists -- including three Nobel laureates -- work toward their next discoveries. The institute's graduate program, which awards Ph.D. degrees in biology and chemistry, ranks among the top ten of its kind in the nation. For more information, see www.scripps.edu

About Sutro Biopharma

Sutro Biopharma, located in South San Francisco, is developing a new generation of antibody drug conjugate therapeutics and bifunctional antibody-based therapeutics for targeted cancer therapies. These therapeutics will significantly extend the clinical impact of current oncology therapeutic approaches and are beyond what can be envisioned with current (cell-based) expression technologies. Sutro's biochemical synthesis technology, which underpins these therapeutics, allows the rapid and systematic exploration of many protein drug variants to identify drug candidates. Our make-test cycle for hundreds of protein variants, including those incorporating non-natural amino acids, takes approximately two weeks. Once these product candidates are identified, production can be rapidly and predictably scaled up to commercial levels. In addition to developing its own drug pipeline, Sutro Biopharma is collaborating with select pharmaceutical and biotech companies in the discovery and development of novel protein therapeutics. For more information, visit www.sutrobio.com.

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SOURCE Sutro Biopharma