PhoreMost & XtalPi Sign AI-Based Collaboration Agreement

PhoreMost Limited and XtalPi Inc. recently announced they have entered into a drug discovery collaboration agreement. Financial details are not disclosed.

Under the terms of agreement, PhoreMost and XtalPi will rapidly identify and develop compounds to advance a drug discovery program against targets that epigenetically regulate tumor progression, and have been previously classified as undruggable. The companies will pursue this challenging goal with a unique combination of machine learning and physics-based computation methods, using XtalPi’s intelligent digital drug discovery and development (ID4) platform, to explore novel sites discovered by PhoreMost’s SITESEEKER platform.

PhoreMost’s SITESEEKER platform exploits protein shape diversity to find new peptide targets, significantly enhancing the power of phenotypic screening and translation into therapeutic modalities. Based on proprietary protein interference, or PROTEINi, technology, PhoreMost uses SITESEEKER to probe the entire proteome in a live cell environment for novel druggable targets linked to any chosen disease. This enables the systematic discovery of functionally active peptides which are directly linked to useful therapeutic applications.

Protein-protein interaction sites are traditionally considered undruggable by small-molecules due to their large flat surface and the absence of well-defined binding pockets. XtalPi’s ID4 platform integrates data-driven AI models with physics-based methods to quickly distil a small number of high-quality compounds from an AI-generated target-specific chemical space that includes millions of diverse molecules. Such diversity, combined with ID4’s drug property prediction algorithms’ speed and accuracy, allows scientists to unearth promising candidates, overcome the bottleneck of simultaneously optimizing all pharmacological properties, and ensure a smooth progression into preclinical and clinical studies.

Dr. Chris Torrance, CEO of PhoreMost, said “XtalPi’s AI-based ID4 and PhoreMost’s SITESEEKER are highly complementary platforms, and we look forward to working together with the team. This alliance marks an exciting chapter in PhoreMost’s development, as we now seek to rapidly progress our internal portfolio of novel first-in-class targets into drug discovery.”

Dr. Jian Ma, Co-founder and CEO of XtalPi added “Today, many diseases lack effective treatment because their corresponding targets are too challenging for traditional drug discovery methods. We are excited to combine PhoreMost’s target discovery technology with our ability to quickly identify lead compounds with desirable drug properties, and continuously translate high-quality undruggable targets into first-in-class pipeline assets to address unmet medical needs.”

PhoreMost has developed a next-generation phenotypic screening platform called SITESEEKER that can discern the best new targets for future therapy and crucially, how to drug them, which has the potential to significantly increase the diversity and affordability of novel therapeutics for cancer and other unmet diseases. Based on the company’s core proprietary Protein Interference technology, SITESEEKER systematically unmasks cryptic druggable sites across the entire human genome and directly links them to useful therapeutic functions in a live-cell context. Using this platform, PhoreMost is building a pipeline of novel drug discovery programmes aimed at addressing a range of unmet diseases.

XtalPi is a pharmaceutical technology company that is reinventing the industry’s approach to drug research and development with its Intelligent Digital Drug Discovery and Development (ID4) platform. With tightly interwoven quantum physics, AI, and high-performance cloud computing algorithms, XtalPi’s ID4 platform provides accurate predictions on the physicochemical and pharmaceutical properties of small-molecule candidates for drug design, solid-form selection, and other critical aspects of drug development. XtalPi is dedicated to improving the efficiency, accuracy, and success rate of drug research and development, and contributing to a healthier society worldwide.

Founded in 2014 by a group of quantum physicists at MIT, XtalPi has since built an elite team with multi-disciplinary expertise in physics, chemistry, pharmaceutical R&D, and algorithm design. XtalPi’s cutting-edge technologies, innovative solutions, and diverse applications across the pharmaceutical value chain have helped it gain industry approval and establish strategic partnerships with top international pharmaceutical companies.