The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Generate:Biomedicines 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.
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.
