Monday, July 17, 2023
Eleven Therapeutics, a biotechnology company that specializes in developing next-generation RNA therapeutics through the integration of combinatorial chemistry and artificial intelligence, has announced a research collaboration with Novo Nordisk, a global healthcare company. The objective of this collaboration is to identify innovative molecules that facilitate the targeted delivery of nucleic acid therapeutics. By leveraging Eleven's advanced DELiveri™ platform, the companies aim to usher in a new era of precision in nucleic acid medicine for cardiometabolic diseases.
Cardiometabolic diseases hold significant potential for nucleic acid therapeutics. However, the lack of organ-specific delivery agents poses a major challenge to their successful development as safe and effective treatments. The DELiveri™ platform developed by Eleven Therapeutics revolutionizes nucleic acid therapeutics by utilizing DNA-encoded libraries (DELs) to discover conjugates that facilitate efficient and precise delivery of therapeutic molecules. This collaboration provides Novo Nordisk with exclusive access to Eleven's DELiveri™ platform for specific cell types and applications, following a staged approach.
Uli Stilz, Head of Novo Nordisk's Bio Innovation Hub in Boston, expressed excitement about the research collaboration, stating that it aligns with Novo Nordisk's commitment to advancing precision medicine. The collaboration will explore novel strategies for cell-specific targeting, leveraging the expertise of both teams and the capabilities of Eleven's DELiveri™ platform. The ultimate goal is to unlock transformative treatments for individuals with cardiometabolic diseases.
Prof. Yaniv Erlich, CEO of Eleven Therapeutics, expressed delight in collaborating with Novo Nordisk, a renowned leader in global healthcare. He emphasized the potential impact of the collaboration on patients' lives through the development of carriers capable of delivering various therapeutic cargos. Furthermore, Prof. Erlich highlighted the promise of Eleven's DELiveri™ platform, specifically tailored to discover cell-selective delivery moieties with unmatched efficiency in the field, made possible by the high-throughput capabilities of DELs.
Eleven Therapeutics remains committed to maximizing the impact of the DELiveri™ platform for the benefit of patients by expanding collaborations with innovative partners working on specific cell-type and disease area applications. Novo Nordisk's Bio Innovation Hub, dedicated to bringing cutting-edge life science innovations from bench to bedside through co-creation partnerships, focuses strategically on areas such as cardiometabolic, rare endocrine, and blood disorders.
Eleven Therapeutics' DELiveri™ platform offers a revolutionary approach to nucleic acid therapeutics delivery, overcoming the complex challenges encountered in the field. DELiveri™ harnesses DNA-encoded libraries (DELs) to discover conjugates that efficiently deliver therapeutic molecules to target cell types. This innovation eliminates the need for multiple conditions to occur simultaneously, which has been a significant obstacle. By utilizing DELs, DELiveri™ identifies novel internalizing molecules specific to particular cell types through hypothesis-free, high-throughput screening of a vast array of small molecules. Traditional direct DEL screens often struggle to differentiate molecules that successfully deliver cargo into the cytoplasm from those that remain on the cell's outer membrane or become trapped in inaccessible organelles. To overcome this limitation, Eleven's DELiveri™ platform employs a synthetic biology solution, transforming screened cells into molecular radars. The resulting signals are transformed into quantitative scores that describe the delivery potential of each molecule in the library. With the aid of machine learning and artificial intelligence tools, Eleven can precisely identify molecules that promote cell-specific delivery of nucleic acid therapeutics.
