The Bio Report

Changing Drug Discovery for Neuropsychiatric Disorders with Phenotypic Screens

Despite the large human and societal costs of neuropsychiatric disorders, many of these conditions have poor or no treatment options. And there has been a dearth of new mechanisms to treat major neuropsychiatric disorders for decades. PsychoGenics is seeking to change that with its unique approach to drug discovery for these conditions. Rather than rely on a target-based approach, the company has created high-throughput phenotypic screens using validated mouse models and artificial intelligence to detect behavioral changes. We spoke to Mark Varney, chief scientific officer of PsychoGenics, about the company’s use of phenotypic screens to discover new drugs for neuropsychiatric disorders, how it works, and the case for this approach.

Using Virtual Reality-Guided Mindfulness to Treat Chronic Pain in Cancer Patients

Chronic, cancer-related pain affects between 30 and 50 percent of patients undergoing cancer treatment and more than 70 percent of patients with advanced disease. Linda Carlson, Enbridge research chair in psychosocial oncology at the University of Calgary Cumming School of Medicine, is working with digital therapeutics developer Rocket VR Health to study the potential of a virtual reality-guided mindfulness intervention program in adult cancer patients with chronic, cancer-related pain. The thinking is that mindfulness could mitigate chronic cancer-related pain by regulating both physical and emotional resistance to it and that virtual reality could create an immersive environment that could focus patients’ attention on present moment experiences making it easier for them to achieve mindfulness achieve more effective results. We spoke to Carlson about the problem of chronic pain in cancer, the case for mindfulness, and why the use of virtual reality might provide better outcomes for patients.

Activating the Adaptive and Innate Immune Systems to Fight Cancer

One reason immunotherapies can fail in cancer is that the tumor microenvironment can suppress activation of the immune system. Surface Oncology is using multiple platform technologies to discover new antibody therapies that activate both the innate and adaptive immune systems to improve how people with cancer respond to these medicines. We spoke to Rob Ross, CEO of Surface Oncology, about the tumor microenvironment, the approach Surface is taking to activate both the adaptive and innate immune system, and its lead therapeutic candidates in development.

A Longevity Fund Focused on Young Companies

The deepening understanding of the biology of aging is giving rise to a growing list of companies that seek not only to address diseases of aging, but find ways to extend the healthy years of life. LongeVC is a venture capital firm focused on seed and early-stage investment in longevity statups. It’s also built a community of like-minded companies to support startups, as well as an acceleration program for them. We spoke to Sergey Jakimov, founding partner of LongeVC, about the firm’s approach to investing, what constitutes a longevity play for it, and the network of companies it has assembled to help advance the startups it backs.

Learning from “Elite” Responders to Develop Better Immunotherapies

A subset of patients treated with checkpoint inhibitors respond particularly well to these immunotherapies. These so-called “elite responders” produce antibodies that modulate immune cells in the tumor microenvironment. OncoResponse is working to discover the antibodies these elite responders produce to develop a pipeline of cancer therapies. We spoke to Bob Lechleider, chief medical officer of OncoRepsonse, about the tumor microenvironment, how his company is studying elite responders to immunotherapies to discover new antibodies to modulate the immune system, and his company’s lead program in clinical development.

Bringing Precision Medicine to the Treatment of Obesity

Obesity rates in the United States have doubled in the past 20 years and without changes, nearly half of the adult population will be obese by 2030. Though there are many approaches to weight loss—diet and exercise, drugs, surgery—their safety and efficacy varies widely from patient to patient. Phenomix Sciences is using phenotyping to understand the type of obesity each individual has to tailor treatments that address it specifically. Based on work at the Mayo Clinic, Phenomix breaks obesity into four different subtypes. We spoke to Mark Bagnall, CEO of Phenomix, about the company’s efforts to bring precision medicine to the treatment of obesity, the testing it performs, and the science underlying its approach.

Expanding the Promise of RNA Therapies

RNA therapies and vaccines have already shown their power. Nutcracker Therapeutics is taking a nod from the high-tech sector to harness semiconductor-like biochips and microfluidic engineering to create a fully automated platform to increase the speed and scale at which RNA therapies can be discovered, developed, and manufactured. It is developing multimodal RNA therapies which serves as an RNA cocktail to attack multiple disease mechanisms at once. We spoke to Geoff Nosrati, chief business officer of Nutcracker, about the company’s platform technology, its lead program targeting HPV-driven tumors, and its focus on multimodal RNA therapies.

Triggering a Systemic Immune Response Against Cancer

Immune checkpoint inhibitors are transforming cancer care, but still have low response rates in most solid tumors. When cancer spreads to the liver, it can render immunotherapies ineffective because of the large number of immune-suppressive macrophages that are present there. Teclison has developed platform technology that chokes off tumors and activates the immune system against the cancer. The company said its technology can significantly enhances the therapeutic benefit of immunotherapies and can be leveraged to treat nearly all solid tumors. We spoke to Ray Lee, founder and chief medical officer of Teclison, about the company’s platform technology, it’s lead therapeutic candidate, and how it can trigger a systemic immune response.