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Title edit
Biotica - Cancer Drug Discovery through Synthetic Biology of Polyketides
Description edit
biotechnology company focused on the discovery of novel polyketide pharmaceuticals through the targeted alteration of polyketide biosynthetic pathways. Its proprietary synthetic biology platforms enable both the specific and combinatorial biosynthesis of bioactive polyketides. Polyketides are a diverse class of natural products that have been a prolific source of commercially significant pharmaceuticals, currently representing worldwide sales in excess of $20 billion pa. The Company applies its technology platform to discover polyketides that are potentially useful therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and other diseases.
Focus On Cancer
The Company has a well-positioned and promising in-house drug discovery portfolio that includes polyketide mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitors, 90 kDa heat shock protein (Hsp90) inhibitors and novel angiogenesis inhibitors, all clinically validated approaches for the development of novel anticancer therapeutics. Furthermore these anticancer targets represent opportunities unique to polyketides, some of which are inaccessible with conventional small molecules. For example, the polyketide rapamycin and analogues are the only established mTOR inhibitors known to date.
Proprietory Breakthrough Technology Platform
Due to the structural complexity of these polyketides, chemical modifications available to traditional organic synthesis are limited and their production is often challenging. Biotica’s technology platform comprises methods for the genetic engineering of polyketide synthase (‘PKS’) and associated ‘post-PKS’ genes. This permits the structural modification of polyketides via extension or contraction of the polyketide chain, incorporation of non-natural ‘starter’ and ‘extender’ units providing altered substitution patterns, control of oxidation state and stereochemistry of side-chains, and manipulation of post-PKS processing steps such as glycosylation and methylation. The technology provides a powerful means of focused library generation to access those areas of structural space around a polyketide lead which are otherwise essentially inaccessible through synthetic chemical approaches. The Company is therefore technologically well-positioned to discover and produce novel polyketides that are potentially useful anticancer drugs.
