TenAces Team
AION Labs, an Israeli organization that is the first-of-its-kind venture studio “spearheading” the adoption of AI technologies and computational science to solve therapeutic challenges, formed the new venture TenAces Biosciences. TenAces is a startup developing what it describes as a novel approach to discovering new molecular glue therapies, leveraging machine learning to enhance the development of treatments for a range of conditions.
Molecular glue therapies are an exciting new branch of drug development that utilizes small molecules to modulate protein-protein interactions (PPIs). Imagine them as tiny, targeted pieces of molecular velcro, bringing together proteins that wouldn’t normally interact or stabilizing existing interactions to achieve therapeutic effects.
This approach holds immense promise for tackling a wide range of diseases, particularly those where traditional drugs struggle to reach their targets effectively.
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Molecular glues can act in various ways, depending on the desired outcome. They can promote protein degradation by bringing a target protein close to an E3 ligase, the cell’s “protein disposal unit,” they can trigger its degradation, effectively silencing its harmful activity.
They can also stabilize beneficial protein complexes, enhancing their function and counteracting disease processes and by binding to specific sites on a protein, they can alter its shape and activity, leading to desired therapeutic effects.
Compared to conventional drugs, molecular glues offer several advantages. They can access and modulate PPIs that were once considered “untouchable” by traditional drugs. Also, their targeted nature minimizes side effects and improves therapeutic efficacy and their smaller size allows them to better reach target tissues compared to larger antibody-based drugs.
AION Labs calls itself a first-of-its kind venture studio and is comprised of eight global pharma, tech and innovation leaders. The firm says its mission is to “create and adopt groundbreaking AI technologies that revolutionize drug discovery and development, improving health and patient outcomes for global populations.”
TenAces emerged from AION Labs’ fifth startup challenge to develop an AI platform to identify naturally occurring protein interactions leading to targeted protein degradation. The platform solution is expected to facilitate the discovery and development of molecular glue therapies for enhanced targeted protein degradation. Traditionally, molecular glues have been discovered serendipitously and are then used as a basis to attempt to discover new glues. TenAces is taking a different approach, by applying machine learning to study the various interactions, protein pairs, and multi-dimensional features to predict new molecular glues.
TenAces explains that the uniqueness of its approach is integrating biology in the development of its machine learning algorithms, baking in multiple feedback loops with wet lab validations to further guide the algorithms and enhance their prediction capabilities.
“We are developing a novel solution for targeted protein degradation by enabling the identification of optimal E3 degraders and designing molecular glues for removal of disease-causing proteins. With some 85% of target proteins currently undruggable, we can potentially address a wide range of diseases,” said Arnout Schepers, PhD, Founder and CEO of TenAces. “AION Labs has proven invaluable in facilitating the establishment of TenAces. The support of our pharma partners has been integral in shaping the company, providing the essential resources and guidance necessary to develop and eventually commercialize solutions that can facilitate more effective treatment.”
