Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Forge Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company discovering innovative therapeutics using a breakthrough drug discovery platform targeting metalloproteins, and Active Motif, a leader in developing tools to enable epigenetics research, announced today a research collaboration aimed at advancing epigenetic research related to the family of iron-containing lysine demethylases known as Jumonji KDMs.
The companies aim to validate emerging epigenetic targets for oncology indications and demonstrate the 'drugability' of Jumonji KDMs. The research collaboration will combine Forge's expertise in the field of metalloenzymes and Active Motif's expertise in epigenetics and related technologies.
"Other epigenetic targets such as histone deacetylases and methyl transferases have been validated therapeutically, however the Jumonji KDM family has been lagging behind due to a lack of suitable chemistry and limited biological tools available to early-stage companies," said Zachary A. Zimmerman, Ph.D., CEO of Forge Therapeutics. "The Forge drug discovery engine has generated several full length inhibitors that are selective and potent for individual KDMs and subfamilies of KDMs, and we look forward to probing epigenetic biology using Active Motif's suite of technologies."
"Active Motif's expertise in epigenetic research tools and complex epigenetic analysis combined with the prowess of Forge Therapeutics to quickly generate compounds that specifically inhibit epigenetic modifying proteins positions this collaboration to become a preeminent epigenetic drug discovery effort," said Joseph M. Fernandez, CEO of Active Motif. "This cutting-edge research aims to help advance novel therapeutics for oncology indications."
Source : prnewswire.com
