Somerville, Mass., and Houston – April 27, 2023 – Generate:Biomedicines and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center today announced a strategic collaboration to jointly discover and co-develop protein therapeutics for up to five oncology targets in advanced cancers, including small-cell and non-small-cell lung cancer.
Under the co-development and commercialization agreement, MD Anderson and Generate:Biomedicines will each contribute toward creating optimized, potentially best-in-class therapeutics that can rapidly advance into proof-of-concept clinical trials. The agreement combines Generate:Biomedicines’ integrated machine-learning capabilities and experimental/wet lab capabilities – which are powered by The Generate Platform – with MD Anderson’s clinical research expertise and the translational research and drug development capabilities of the Translational Research to AdvanCe Therapeutics and Innovation in Oncology (TRACTION) platform.
“Together with Generate:Biomedicines, we aim to leverage rapid advancements in generative AI to develop new medicines that are purpose-built for those who do not benefit from existing treatments or who have drug-resistant cancers requiring new options,” said Timothy Heffernan, Ph.D., vice president of Oncology Research for TRACTION at MD Anderson. “By joining The Generate Platform with our integrated translational research and drug development approach, we hope to successfully scale drug discovery and development in a way that has eluded traditional trial-and-error methods.”
By tapping into the programmability and scalability of The Generate Platform, researchers within TRACTION and across the MD Anderson research enterprise will accelerate the pace of drug development and inform clinical translation. TRACTION is a core component of MD Anderson’s Therapeutics Discovery division that deploys a fully integrated translational biology engine to overcome traditional challenges in oncology drug discovery.
“Our collaboration with MD Anderson is an embodiment of innovative and cooperative research purposed to maximize the clinical impact of new therapeutics in oncology,” said Generate:Biomedicines’ Chief Medical Officer, Alex Snyder, M.D. “Together, we aim to deploy disruptive technology that will enable us to completely reimagine how we identify and pursue therapeutic targets, with the goal of creating new therapies for patients faster than ever before.”
Under the agreement terms, Generate:Biomedicines and MD Anderson will share research and development expenses as well as funds generated through commercialization of products that emerge from the collaboration. The organizations also anticipate that MD Anderson will serve as a site and recommend lead investigators for Phase I and II clinical trials of any jointly developed therapeutic product candidates.
About Generative Biology
Generative biology represents a fundamental shift in therapeutic development driven by generative artificial intelligence (AI). This approach creates never-before-seen therapeutic molecules targeted to specific biological processes involved in disease that can be modulated with a wide range of protein modalities—from short peptides to complex antibodies, enzymes, and cytokines. But the promise of generative biology goes beyond existing proteins found in nature and can create novel proteins that are purpose-built to address an existing or emerging therapeutic need. As a result, generative biology promises to leave trial-and-error drug discovery methods behind to usher in a new era of programmable drug generation that’s faster, cheaper, and better tailored to specific conditions.
About Generate:Biomedicines
Generate:Biomedicines is the first drug generation company, pioneering a machine learning-powered generative biology platform with the ability to create new drugs on demand across a wide range of biologic modalities. The Generate Platform – which is a continuous loop to generate, build, measure, and learn – can drastically increase the speed at which targets and therapeutics are identified and validated. This will improve the specificity of target engagement by generated proteins and reduce the time and cost of identifying and developing clinical candidates. Generate:Biomedicines was founded by Flagship Pioneering after two years of foundational research in its Labs unit and launched in 2020. Learn more about Generate:Biomedicines by visiting https://generatebiomedicines.com/ or following the company on Twitter and LinkedIn.
Disclosure
MD Anderson has an institutional conflict of interest with Generate related to this research, and this relationship will be managed according to an MD Anderson Institutional Conflict of Interest Management and Monitoring Plan.
About MD Anderson
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston ranks as one of the world’s most respected centers focused on cancer patient care, research, education, and prevention. The institution’s sole mission is to end cancer for patients and their families around the world. MD Anderson is one of only 53 comprehensive cancer centers designated by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). MD Anderson is No. 1 for cancer in U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Hospitals” rankings and has been named one of the nation’s top two hospitals for cancer since the rankings began in 1990. MD Anderson receives a cancer center support grant from the NCI of the National Institutes of Health (P30 CA016672).
Generate Media Contact
Megan McLaughlin
MD Anderson Media Contact
Clayton Boldt, Ph.D.