EU Project Identifies Potential New Treatments for Cancer

Research undertaken as part of the European Lead Factory Project, brought together scientists from the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), the Pivot Park Screening Centre and BioAscent in the discovery of potent and selective inhibitors of enzymes associated with the development of some cancers and neurodegenerative diseases.

The collaborative group proposed a study of Kallikrein-related peptidase 6 (KLK6) in the development, invasiveness and metastasis of some cancers, including colon cancer and melanomas.

Initial high throughput screening performed at the  Pivot Park Screening Centre  identified a cluster of initial hits that showed consistent inhibitory activity against KLK6; these were improved on using multi-step synthesis procedures to produce novel chiral compounds that were tested using a range of biophysical and biochemical assays. The team of biologists and chemist scientists has since transitioned to BioAscent.

Dr Phil Jones, Chief Scientific Officer at BioAscent, said: “Historically the infrastructure and expertise to carry out this type of approach has only really been available in major pharma companies. BioAscent now has the facilities and breadth of expertise and experience to perform these studies and provide our clients with excellent opportunities to advance their drug discovery projects.”

Dr Aubry Miller, Cancer Drug Discovery/Wirkstoffforschung Group Leader, DKFZ, was enthusiastic about the collaboration, commenting: “More importantly, the scientists (now at BioAscent) who were involved in the hit development stage, were fully committed to the success of the project, bringing their own ideas and solutions, which made my role as project owner very comfortable. I would be very happy to work with them again.”