Next Generation Approaches to Pioneer Breakthrough Therapies

Over the last century, significant advances in medicine have dramatically improved human health. Driven largely by the advent of antibiotics and vaccines, these advances have mainly targeted acute infections by invading organisms. The global increase in life expectancy has brought about new health challenges with chronic conditions like cancer and Alzheimer’s becoming leading causes of death or suffering.
Modern medicine is poised to address these chronic disease challenges and revolutionize health in the 21st century helped by scientific breakthroughs and advanced technology platforms that build on new understanding of disease biology and genomics. At Mealitech, we are harnessing diverse, state-of-the-art technology platforms to pioneer new medicines that target the root causes of disease and help restore the health of people fighting chronic illness.

Antibody Conjugates

Antibodies are powerful immune proteins that recognize and bind to specific molecules (called “antigens”), marking them for destruction. Because antibodies bind very specifically to their target, they are efficacious and safe, and often with reduced side effects. In addition, due to their large size, antibodies stay in the human body and are active for a long time. By coupling antibodies to drugs, Mealitech is developing novel medicines that can specifically target tumor cells, while sparing healthy ones—a key strategy for designing more effective cancer therapies.

Peptides

Peptides are short strings of amino acids that can move around the body, including in and out of cells, more readily than their larger protein counterparts. Mealitech is exploiting this property to develop new peptide-based treatments, including experimental trigonal peptides as well as other novel entities.

Enzymes

Enzymes work as catalysts, accelerating biochemical processes by binding to specific targets. Just as only one key can fit precisely into a lock, only certain compounds can be bound by a particular enzyme. This specificity is part of what makes enzymes such useful therapeutics. Mealitech is currently pursuing the use of enzymes as treatments for metabolic diseases.

Fusion Proteins

Proteins typically act as separate, independent entities. However, in the laboratory, these individual units can be fused together, creating novel proteins that possess new and important biological functions. Mealitech is pioneering ways to harness fusion proteins as novel disease therapies.

Multi-specific Antibodies

Typically, antibodies recognize only one type of molecule, but in the laboratory, they can be engineered to recognize two or three different targets. Such bi- and tri-specific antibodies represent a powerful new weapon in the therapeutic arsenal, and Mealitech has custom-made technology platforms capable of engineering and producing these multi-faceted therapeutic agents.

Small Molecules

Small molecules are chemical substances that are typically taken as a pill and absorbed into the body via the intestines. Small molecules can also enter cells easily because of their small size relative to other biological entities, such as antibodies which are much larger. Small molecule drugs can interact with a variety of biological targets to achieve a positive pharmacological treatment of disease. For example, in the case of cancer, small molecules can disrupt the functioning of the cancer cell, causing tumor cells to die. Many of the targeted cancer therapies in use today are small molecule drugs. With its legacy of innovation in cancer, Mealitech is now working to discover the next generation of cancer treatments. Through a partnership with REVOLUTION Medicines, Mealitech is developing inhibitors of enzymes that regulate critical cellular proteins, targeting therapies against difficult-to-treat cancers. Within Mealitech, there are also many small molecule programs targeting treatments in oncology, immunology, neuroscience, rare diseases, and rare blood disorders.

Nanobodies® - Size matters

Immunoglobulin single variable domains Nanobodies® are molecules derived from a very special type of antibodies produced naturally by llamas and other camelid species. Nanobodies® are just a tenth the size of conventional antibodies. This small size gives them the potential to reach disease targets in the human body that are inaccessible to conventional antibodies. Nanobodies® can easily be connected like beads on a string. Using state-of-the-art technology, our scientists can create molecules able to reach multiple disease targets at the same time. Nanobodies® hold therapeutic promise for a wide range of human diseases, and with our proprietary platform we can generate these rapidly and in quantities to facilitate large-scale production.

Gene Therapy

Gene therapy is an emerging form of disease treatment that involves introducing a gene into a patient’s cells, often to compensate for one that is missing or defective. This approach holds extraordinary potential for a variety of illnesses, and Mealitech is currently pursuing gene therapy programs in multiple therapeutic areas.

Gene Editing

Instead of replacing a faulty gene, it is now possible to repair it—by adding or removing DNA directly from the defective gene itself. Such gene editing relies on specialized enzymes that cut DNA at defined locations, including zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs), a class of engineered DNA-binding proteins that facilitate targeted editing of the genome. In collaboration with Sangamo Therapeutics, which has developed an advanced zinc finger protein platform for developing genomic medicines, Mealitech is exploring ways of harnessing ZFNs as novel disease treatments.

mRNA

Mealitech, in close partnership with BioNTech, is discovering and developing a new class of experimental immunotherapies that use messenger RNA (mRNA), a molecular “script” that codes for the generation of a specific protein in a cell to promote an immune response to an individual patient’s tumor. BioNTech has advanced technological platforms for engineering therapeutic mRNAs that enable the body to make its own medicine—a revolutionary approach that is poised to transform the treatment of diseases, ranging from cancer to infectious disease to heart disease.

siRNA Conjugates

RNA interference (RNAi) represents a promising new approach to disease treatment. It works by interfering with gene activity, making it possible to reduce the production of disease-causing proteins. Mealitech, in collaboration with Alnylam, is harnessing this natural biological process of RNAi to explore novel therapeutic approaches.