BUSINESS INSIGHTS
PostEra | May 19, 2022
PostEra, a biotechnology company specializing in machine learning for preclinical drug discovery, announced a multi-year collaboration with the National Institutes of Health to develop small molecule antiviral therapeutics to prevent pandemics. The center will receive initial funding of $68M. PostEra co-leads this initiative with the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative, a global charity with expertise in drug development for global equitable access, and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
As part of the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Antiviral Program for Pandemics, the AI-driven Structure-Enabled Antiviral Platform (ASAP) consortium aims to discover dozens of lead compounds against key viruses of significant pandemic concern, such as flaviviruses (responsible for endemic diseases such as Dengue and Zika), picornaviruses (including potentially debilitating enteroviruses as well as other cold-causing viruses), and coronaviruses. ASAP will further deliver three IND-ready candidates which can be immediately ready for clinical evaluation in the event of a viral outbreak, so that future pandemics can be halted before severe outbreaks occur. The consortium is committed to making resulting antivirals globally and equitably accessible, so that no patient population is left behind.
ASAP will use PostEra's end-to-end AI-first approach to accelerate the discovery process, generating molecules with optimised properties, designing rapid synthesis, and optimally prioritising experiments. In particular, AI approaches are tightly integrated into structural biology to realize next generation structure-based design. ASAP is built on the success of the COVID Moonshot project, a global open-science AI-driven initiative that began in March 2020 and rapidly identified antiviral drug candidates that target the main protease of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
"We are honored to be co-leading this consortium. We believe that our AI platform will accelerate the discovery of therapeutics that will prevent pandemics."
Dr Alpha Lee, Chief Scientific Officer of PostEra, who co-founded COVID Moonshot
About PostEra
PostEra was founded in 2019 and its technology is built on pioneering academic research done by its founding scientists. PostEra's technology addresses some of the key challenges in drug discovery R&D by integrating molecular design with chemical synthesis. PostEra advances small molecule programs through partnerships with biopharma, working on its own internal pipeline, and also offering some of its synthesis technology via its Manifold web platform. PostEra also helped launch the world's largest open-science drug discovery effort; COVID Moonshot, along with an NIH-funded antiviral research center for the prevention of future pandemics.
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RESEARCH
Moderna | December 16, 2020
It would appear that Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 immunization was not the sole objective of a new cyberattack at the European Medicines Agency.
Moderna said Monday that reports from its pre-accommodation conversations with EMA about its shot, mRNA-1273, were "unlawfully gotten to" by programmers, refering to a warning from the organization.
The assailants didn't get individual data about preliminary members, Moderna said. The organization's EMA accommodation did exclude any information recognizing people in the examination.
Now, no extra insights concerning the cyberattack, for example, the size of the penetrate or the character of any suspects—are accessible, and Moderna said it anticipates results from EMA's progressing examination.
The disclosure came days after the EMA initially uncovered the cyberattack, and Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 immunization applicant, BNT162b2, was the principal distinguished as an objective.
EMA choices on the two immunizations are moving close. Medication commentators at the EMA's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use are booked to evaluate BNT162b2 on Dec. 29 and mRNA-1273 on Jan. 12.
Moderna was recently focused by programmers looking for its COVID-19 examination, in a cyberattack supposedly upheld by the Chinese government.
The U.S. Branch of Justice in July arraigned two Chinese nationals for running a 10-year hacking effort that most as of late rotated to focusing on organizations doing COVID research. Reuters later affirmed Moderna as the antibody producer referenced in the arraignment. China has denied any function in such practices.
Other than Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech, rival COVID immunization designers AstraZeneca, Johnson and Johnson and Novavax apparently have arrived in the line of sight of North Korean programmers. In those hacking endeavors, the assailants regularly conveyed noxious reports or connections by means of email under the appearance of occupation enrollment specialists, partners or different associates of the person in question, as indicated by individuals acquainted with the issue refered to by The Wall Street Journal.
Country state programmers from Iran and Russia have likewise been blamed for attempting to take COVID-related data.
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CPD AND LEARNING
PostEra | November 27, 2020
PostEra, a biotechnology organization offering restorative science fueled by AI, today reported a joint effort with NeuroLucent, a Chicago-put together organization centered with respect to creating novel medicines for Alzheimer's sickness and different dementias.
The disappointment of late-stage clinical preliminaries to reveal viable treatments for Alzheimer's illness has underscored the need to investigate novel helpful methodologies. NeuroLucent is creating novel little atom aggravates that standardize a key calcium direct that is dysregulated in Alzheimer's neurons and reestablish ordinary neuronal capacity in different preclinical Alzheimer's models.
NeuroLucent has collaborated with PostEra to quicken its quest for a helpful up-and-comer. PostEra will utilize its AI innovation to upgrade NeuroLucent's lead mixes through a progression of 'plan make-test' cycles that has recently been appeared to quicken therapeutic science crusades. PostEra will likewise use its Manifold stage, which gives admittance to mixes through an overall organization of merchants and accomplice contract research associations.
Business terms incorporate a forthright installment to PostEra, with extra installments upon the accomplishment of specific achievements.
"We're excited about the potential of integrating PostEra's technology into the design of more potent compounds," said Bill Kohlbrenner, CEO of NeuroLucent. "We are intrigued by PostEra's machine learning algorithm since it doesn't require detailed structural information related to the drug target. We're looking forward to seeing what impact PostEra's AI solutions will have on our program."
About NeuroLucent
NeuroLucent holds an exclusive license to technology developed at the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science by Dr. Grace (Beth) Stutzmann, who uncovered a link between aberrant Ca2+ signalling, long known to occur in Alzheimer's neurons, and a Ca2+ channel that becomes 'leaky' in disease. NeuroLucent's preclinical stage compounds have been validated in multiple disease models and the current company focus is on identifying a clinical development candidate that addresses the cognitive loss associated with Alzheimer's disease.
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