Scil Proteins, a private biotech company specialized in the discovery, development and production of recombinant proteins, announced that it has achieved validation of its proprietary Affilin drug discovery platform in animals. The Company’s lead product, SPVF 2801, an Affilin molecule for applications in solid tumors passed initial preclinical studies with excellent results.
Affilin molecules are scaffold proteins derived from the natural serum protein ubiquitin. They bind disease related targets with high affinity and specificity. Scil Proteins’ platform combines proprietary Affilin® libraries with Ribosome and Tat Phage Display screening technologies, allowing fast identification of Affilin therapeutics. The power of this technology has been demonstrated by the fact that it took only five months from the start of candidate selection to move the lead candidate into the first preclinical animal study.
Scil Proteins’ lead program aims at the development of Affilin® molecules for a clinically validated cancer target. The validation was achieved showing an accumulation of SPVF 2801 in solid tumors in a mouse model, indicating that the picomolar binder targets the tumor cells with high specificity in vivo. Based on these results, Scil Proteins will continue pre-clinical development within its cancer lead program and will also progress with screening its Affilin libraries for candidates against additional targets.
The discovery platform uses an accelerated screening process that made use of advanced library design and high-quality ubiquitin libraries with a complexity of 1017. Scil Proteins has complete freedom to operate with these therapeutic Affilin® molecules. The clinically validated solid tumor target used in the screening offers a very broad range of applications in cancer therapy.
“Our goal has been to establish a robust and fast screening platform for the identification of targeted therapeutics. We are therefore extremely pleased with the outcome of this animal study. The high affinity and specificity of the Affilin® candidate seen in biochemical as well as cell culture assay translated nicely into a specific accumulation within the tumor. We are currently working on several other targets,” commented Dr. Arnd Steuernagel, CSO.
“Using our accelerated screening process, it took Scil Proteins only five months to achieve in vivo data following primary screening. This clearly demonstrates how powerful our Affilin platform technology is. Our results further endorse and strengthen our integrated business concept to combine innovative drug discovery, process development and GMP manufacturing,” added Dr. Ulrike Fiedler, CEO of Scil Proteins.
Filed Under: Drug Discovery
