Nuevolution signs international deal to screen potential cancer drugs using DNA tags

An innovative screening technology that tags compounds with unique strands of DNA will be used to assess up to a billion prototype drug molecules for anti-cancer activity in a collaboration between The Institute of Cancer Research in London, Cancer Research Technology (CRT) and Denmark-based privately owned drug discovery company Nuevolution A/S.

Researchers will use Nuevolution’s novel screening technology, Chemetics, to screen libraries of DNA-tagged compounds to identify those that act on a key protein in the stress response pathway, which has an important role in cancer cell survival and resistance to cancer treatments. The collaboration will give scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) access to data from screens of Nuevolution’s proprietary library of small-molecule compounds, each of which is tagged witha unique strand of DNA. Up to a billion compounds will be assessed, with the successful hit compounds identifiable through their DNA tag. This state-of the-art screening technology allows potent drug leads to be identified quickly, accurately and from very large and complex compound mixtures.

The three-way builds on a previous collaboration between CRT and Nuevolution, which aimed to identify drug leads that block the activity of several challenging cancer targets of therapeutic interest. Under the new deal the Cancer Research UK Cancer Therapeutics Unit at the ICR and Nuevolution will collaborate to screen a key target within the stress response pathway using Nuevolution’s Chemetics technology. Researchers from the Cancer Research UK Cancer Therapeutics Unit at the ICR will provide detailed insights and scientific expertise on the specific stress pathway target as well as their extensive experience in cancer drug discovery and development. In addition, they will use their cancer biology and molecular pharmacology expertise to validate prototype drug molecules identified by the Chemetics screening.