A powerful platform
Advances in our knowledge of disease biology drives the need for innovative technologies that can provide hits and leads against targets that cannot easily be addressed using current drug discovery methods.
Curve’s gene-encoded Microcycle® platform enables the panning and enrichment of diverse libraries against a broad range of therapeutic targets expressed in their native intracellular environment and allows selection of hits solely on the basis of their biological function.
Current gene-encoded drug discovery approaches fall short of Pharma’s needs
Existing peptide display and DNA encoded libraries can only identify hits based on their strength of binding (affinity) to a purified and immobilised target in biochemical buffer.
Even if biologically active compounds can be discovered, the macrocycles resulting from peptide display technologies are far too large and unstructured for optimisation into therapeutics, in particular for intracellular targets such as protein-protein and protein-DNA interactions.
An evolving platform
Curve’s droplet microfluidic system is the next generation of the Microcycle platform that allows high efficiency functional screening of a Microcycle library within a single femtolitre liquid droplet. This technology is protected by international patents and patent applications.
This microfluidics platform is being further developed to allow co-encapsulation of mammalian cells with a Microcycle® library within these droplets, enabling the discovery of functional hits against membrane proteins in their native conformation.
A platform built on strong foundations
IP protected
Curve’s proprietary platform is built on pioneering research by the Tavassoli lab and described in more than 30 peer-reviewed publications covering a wide range of protein-protein interactions over a 15-year period. The central components of the Microcycle screening platform are protected through international patents and patent applications and exclusively licensed to Curve.
Promising evolution
Curve’s platform has multiple applications beyond our in-house pipeline and there are clear opportunities for collaborative research and development with partners that have a depth of knowledge in target biology and expertise in drug development.
Pipeline
First in-class therapeutics
Curve is deploying its proprietary platform to build a pipeline of first-in-class small molecule drugs against therapeutically important cancer targets, with the potential to transform the treatment of multiple solid and hematological tumors.
Vision
Redefining Drug Discovery
Our vision is to redefine the discovery of first-in-class small molecule drugs by deploying our Microcycle® library and platform to broaden the landscape of addressable disease targets.
