Orionis Biosciences Demonstrates Platform Capabilities of Genome-scale Molecular Glue Discovery and Rational Design at Targeted Protein Degradation Summit

Orionis Chief Data Scientist Riccardo Sabatini to present preclinical data from the company’s proprietary Allo-Glue^TM small molecule protein degradation platform

Data demonstrate that molecular glue paradigm goes beyond cereblon and is more common across E3 ligases than previously known

BOSTON & GHENT, Belgium--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Orionis Biosciences, a life sciences company pioneering innovation of highly selective and tunable therapeutics for cancer and beyond, today will present preclinical data supporting its Allo-Glue^TM protein degradation platform for discovery and rational design of small molecule molecular glues at the 5^th Annual Targeted Protein Degradation Summit, taking place October 25 – 28 in Boston. The data include platform achievements for ligase-centric and target-centric discovery of molecular glue compounds with potential to modulate previously intractable disease targets.

“Molecular glues have the potential to greatly extend the treatment of challenging diseases like cancer, and there is vast untapped power in this modality. A lack of systematic, scalable discovery and design approaches to molecular glues has, however, limited the field,” said Riccardo Sabatini, Ph.D., Chief Data Scientist at Orionis. “Today we are presenting new data that demonstrate the ability of Orionis’ proprietary Allo-Glue^TM platform to transform glue discovery into a genome-scale, high throughput and rational discovery paradigm. Our large-scale interrogation of small molecule-triggered protein-protein interactions makes it abundantly clear that molecular glue mechanisms are more common than previously appreciated. Clearly, this presents a large and exciting space for chemistry innovation.”

The Allo-Glue platform can interrogate more than 18,000 target proteins simultaneously — virtually the entire human proteome — as well as diverse and privileged chemical libraries, at scale and in an unprecedented, unbiased manner across large number of targets and target classes, including traditionally intractable disease targets. To date, Orionis has mapped more than 150 million molecular glue interactions. This growing data set will provide the company with unique opportunities to further evolve and apply its novel numerical modelling approaches to the rational design of molecular glues.

To date, Orionis’ Allo-Glue platform has:

• Identified multiple monovalent glues and targets for new ligases beyond the E3 ligase cereblon: A series of molecules have demonstrated strong and highly selective target recruitment and degradation in preclinical studies, further validating the concept that drug-induced, selective degradation of proteins is achievable with multiple types of E3 ligases and targets
• Established the feasibility of target-centric approaches to glue discovery, as exemplified by discovery of drug-like molecules for traditionally intractable oncology targets
• Evolved and applied computational methods and machine learning models to rational expansion and design of new molecular glues

Details of today’s presentation are as follows:

5^th Annual Targeted Protein Degradation, October 25-28, 2022, Boston, Massachusetts

• Title: Monovalent Molecular Glues: Cereblon and Beyond
• Date and Time: Wednesday, October 26, 5:00 p.m. ET
• Presenter: Riccardo Sabatini, Chief Data Scientist, Orionis Bio

Last week Orionis announced a $55 million financing to support entry of its lead cancer immunotherapy programs into the clinic. In addition to its Allo-Glue molecules, Orionis is rapidly advancing a deep pipeline of biologics for the treatment of cancer based on its A-Kine^TM platform, which engineers target-selective, conditionally active cytokines designed to trigger anti-tumor immune responses even in cold tumors that lack prevalent immune involvement and are refractory to checkpoint inhibitor therapies. A-Kines aim to avoid the systemic toxicities observed with traditional cytokine therapies. The company anticipates IND submission and start of a Phase 1 study of a conditionally active cytokine, driven by its proprietary A-Kine platform, in 2023.

“We are all very excited about the continued progress the company is making with its multipronged technology and therapeutic approaches to currently hard to treat cancers. Our R&D engine has the potential to address some of the biggest challenges in drug discovery, including diseases beyond cancer,” said Nikolai Kley, co-founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Orionis Biosciences.

About Orionis Biosciences

Orionis Biosciences is a life sciences company pioneering technological innovations in genome-scale drug discovery to develop novel, highly specific and tunable therapeutics for cancer and beyond. The company utilizes its proprietary A-Kine^TM biologics and Allo-Glue^TM small molecule platforms to target core disease vulnerabilities and reach previously intractable targets. Orionis has multiple first-in-class immunotherapies in development for the treatment of cancer. Learn more at www.orionisbio.com.