ALLOX, a new Centre for Genomic Regulation spin-off, is launched with the support of Asabys

ALLOX, a techbio company developing a proprietary technology to design new drugs targeting allosteric sites within oncology and other diseases, announces its incorporation today, as well as the successful closing of an undisclosed pre-seed financing from Asabys’ new fund Sabadell Asabys II.

ALLOX is a spin-off from the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona, and is co-founded by Ben Lehner, Júlia Domingo, Pablo Baeza and Andre Faure. The company, with lab and office at the CRG/PRBB, has a unique systematic and scalable platform which can map allosteric sites in a large amount of proteins, including ‘undruggable’ or hard-to-target therapeutic targets.

Proteins are the effectors of molecular life. They interact with each other and the disruption of these interactions (so-called active sites) has been the main way of developing many of the current drugs on the market. Since nature is smart and highly resource-efficient, often these active sites are conserved in several proteins, which represents a drawback when you are trying to target a particular one. Often, targeting these interactions can have both a therapeutic and toxic effect, the main reason why many drugs never reach patients.

Lately, the search of selectivity has been fruitful thanks to the development of allosteric modulators. The term allostery means “other sites”. Allosteric sites are protein pockets, in which a molecule can bind, affecting the protein shape and indirectly blocking the protein-protein interactions that need to be targeted. Allosteric sites, in comparison with active ones, are often non-conserved and specific to each protein, so ensuring selectivity and safety. A holy grail for drug developers.

Yet, protein allosteric sites can be tough to find, and often very costly and time demanding. Many approaches have been developed computationally, very few experimentally, and almost none combining both experimental and computational ones, as ALLOX.

The ALLOX platform is based on ‘multidimensional mutagenesis’, an experimental method that allows measuring the activity of as many as 1 million mutant versions of a protein in a single experiment. The method is able to directly link genetic changes to phenotypical and finally biophysical measurements, which is something unprecedented. It is a tool for picking a needle in a haystack. This method allows to scan through, at the protein sequence level, and identify new allosteric pockets. Differently from other methodology, it is scalable, quick and cost efficient.

This financing by Sabadell Asabys will allow ALLOX to establish the initial team and facilities and to reach the level of validation and data that should trigger a new financial round in 18 to 24 months from now.

Asabys has successfully backed several other spin-offs and early-stage companies such as Ona Therapeutics, Origo Biopharma, SpliceBio, Inbrain Neuroelectronics, Nuage Therapeutics and OrikineBio.

Júlia Domingo, co-founder and CEO of ALLOX, comments: “A large portion of the therapeutic space is currently considered undruggable. Overcoming this challenge requires creating innovative and more intelligent therapeutics. ALLOX was founded with this mission in mind, convinced that the integration of massive high-throughput screening with AI will accelerate and revolutionise drug discovery. We feel fortunate and proud to embark on this exciting journey with Asabys.”

Ben Lehner, co-founder of ALLOX, adds: “I’m really happy that we have been able to found this company in Barcelona, the city in which this technology was developed. When we started this project it was pure blue skies research with no application. It was only much later that we realised the potential for drug development. It’s really exciting to see real world applications of our research. It’s also really interesting that there are now seven spin-out companies form the CRG and all seven of them have their foundations in basic non-translational research in genomics and computational biology. This blue skies research on foundational problems is where real innovation and new technology comes from.”

Clara Campàs, Managing Partner at Asabys, mentions “ALLOX’s outstanding technology and team have the potential to revolutionize the way we design and discover new and better medicines. We look forward to continuing working side by side with the founders to bring such innovation to patients”.