CONNECT
Let science do the talking
Unfettered academic approaches pursued by those studying the nature of the physical and natural world have led to astonishing insights, often making connections between far-flung disciplines. Curadev’s strength in identifying promising drug targets is strongly associated with its penchant for scientific literature and research conferences, both of which rely heavily on academic research. We find that our culture of “letting science do the talking” allows us to find common ground and build alliances with fine academicians in leading institutions across the world.
CURRENT
COLLABORATIONS
Christian Medical College, Vellore, TN, India
Curadev is collaborating with Dr. Winsley Rose and other clinicians at CMC, Vellore to measure kynurenine levels in dengue patients. Elevated serum levels of the major tryptophan metabolite, kynurenine, are seen in a variety of infectious pathologies and are associated with increase in immune suppressive mediators that dampen host responses to pathogens. Dengue is endemic to parts of India and the goal is to map plasma kynurenine and tryptophan levels as a function of disease severity. Curadev will provide technical and financial resources to support a clinical study carried out by CMC Vellore clinicians. (October 2020)
Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA
Curadev is collaborating with Dr. Jacob Sands to identify drug combinations and patient populations that would benefit from Curadev’s advanced pre-clinical immune-oncology drug candidates. Curadev’s STING agonist candidate and TDO/IDO inhibitor will be a focus of this collaboration. (July 2020)
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA
UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, USA, and Curadev Pharma, India, announce a translational research partnership to identify small molecule drugs for the treatment of specific cancers. Research into the rewiring of tumor cell metabolism coming out of the laboratories of Dr. Elizabeth Maher and Dr. Robert Bachoo with the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute at UT Southwestern has revealed the possible role of specific metabolites in promoting tumor survival. Studies on nutrient utilization in glioblastoma by the UT Southwestern researchers led to the identification of the acetate utilizing enzyme Acyl CoA Synthetase-2 (ACSS2) as a potential target for cancer therapy. The benefits of blocking ACSS2 are likely to extend to other tumor types such as melanoma, breast and prostate cancer as well. Following up on their published work, Curadev has been studying the role of acetate in hypoxia and has developed a proprietary portfolio of potent ACSS2 inhibitors that block the enzyme and increase the vulnerability of tumor cell lines to chemotherapy in hypoxic conditions. UT Southwestern will evaluate Curadev’s compounds in specialized murine models using patient derived xenograft models to identify clinical candidates for therapy in glioblastoma, melanoma and breast cancer. UT Southwestern and Curadev retain a keen interest in translating the research findings of Drs. Maher and Bachoo into clinically relevant small molecule therapies for their patients. (October 2017)
Hôpital Robert Debré, INSERM, Paris, France
Curadev is collaborating with INSERM’s Hôpital Robert Debré with Professor Pierre Gressens, a leading clinician researcher, who identified microglia driven neuroinflammation as the underlying cause of diverse neuropathologies including perinatal brain injury and white matter damage. This partnership places Curadev at the translational edge of research by providing us access to early discoveries on new pathways as well as current thinking in the field of neuro-immunology. Curadev will have access to several central nervous system derived human and mouse cell lines as well as primary cultures and in-vivo disease models. For Curadev, this collaboration forms an important component of our early stage target identification program in the area of autoimmune diseases and cancers. (October 2016)
EARLIER
COLLABORATIONS
All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India
Curadev is the industrial partner in a research collaboration between AIIMS and INSERM for the discovery of diagnostic markers for the early detection of fatal immune responses in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients. Professors Savita Yadav and Sandeep Singh of AIIMS and Professor Anne Marie Papini of INSERM are investigating the expression of proteins and/or aberrantly modified proteins that could have antigenic properties in AMI in order to correlate potential antibody responses with disease activity. Recognition of specific antibodies present in sera of AMI patients could have both a diagnostic and prognostic value. This project has attracted funding from CEFIPRA and the Department of Biotechnology’s BIRAC program.
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India
In 2010, Curadev embarked on three year collaboration at IIT Kanpur where it incubated a part of its early internal chemistry team under a program run by SIDBI Incubation Center to catalyze innovation. It was greatly satisfying when we were able to provide a significant financial reward to IIT Kanpur and the faculty associated with our program for their assistance in getting Curadev off the ground.
University of Greenwich, Kent, UK
Curadev funded a project in the laboratory of Prof. Stephen Wicks to develop a continuous flow process to increase the efficacy of the production of cyclodextrin. The project the invention of a new continuous flow process and as well as the discovery of a novel cyclodextrin. Patents for the process and composition of matter have been granted in North America, EU, UK, China and India and several other geographies (Patent: WO2015/008066)