GAP Fund Program
- Principal Investigator
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The University of Tokyo
Kei Endo
- Adopted Theme
Tiny protein therapeutics
- Subject of Research
- Tiny protein therapeutics
- Overview
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RNA molecules are attractive drug targets because the discovery of disease-causing abnormal RNAs has accelerated in recent years, and because any gene is expressed via mRNA. In this project, we will develop tiny RNA-binding proteins (M.W.: <10 kDa) as a new therapeutic option that targets RNA.
- Business Models（when applying）
We aim to establish a drug discovery startup that develops tiny RNA-biding proteins based on an original platform technology to detect RNA-protein interactions and conducts (1) pipeline drug discovery, (2) joint research and development, and (3) licensing business covering preclinical and clinical trials up to around Phase 2.
- Activity Planning（when applying）
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We are launching two pipeline drug discovery projects and will conduct R&D in following stages with identifying difficulties and improving our platform technology.
Lead generation: Tiny RNA-binding proteins that specifically bind to single-stranded RNA will be generated by genetic and evolutionary engineering methods based on our original platform technology.
Lead optimization: Peptides to be added to the lead protein and to enhance the efficacy of lead protein will be developed to determine the sequence of therapeutic proteins.