Vascular Reserach Group – Vascular Group

VRG Therapeutics announces validation of its AI-powered drug discovery platform and opens USD 15 million funding round

Vascular — Tue, 20 Feb 2024 07:55:00 +0000

BUDAPEST, HUNGARY, February 20, 2024/ EINPresswire.com/ — VRG Therapeutics(VRG Tx), a biotechnology R&D company focusing on miniprotein pharmaceuticals and cellular & gene therapy (CGT) products has announced the successful experimental verification of its proprietary, artificial intelligence-(AI)-powered drug discovery technology.
Using the company’s established, directed evolution based miniprotein platform, VRG Tx has previously demonstrated the capability to drastically improve the pharmacological properties of already identified peptide ligands. Indeed, the evolved drug candidates proved their potential in vivo, in relevant autoimmune and cancer animal proof of concept studies.

Our AI-powered miniprotein platform provides high quality, validated hit molecules within 6 months, which takes years with the traditional screening approach”

— Zalán Péterfi, PhD

The AI-powered add-on is a leap in the potential of the company’s miniprotein platform by enabling de novo design of miniproteins towards virtually any target, bypassing years of struggle to discover a starting molecule. “I am really excited about the successful pilot project which paves the road to tackle any targets by de novo miniprotein design. The discovery process could only start from an already existing target-ligand interaction until this point. Our AI-powered miniprotein platform provides high quality, validated hit molecules within 6 months, which takes years with the traditional screening approach” said Zalán Péterfi, PhD, CEO and co-founder of VRG Tx.

As the first step, the Wetlab-verified In Silico Design of Miniproteins (WISDOM) platform designs initial miniprotein scaffolds in silico that are at least weak binders of the target. Next, these scaffolds are further optimized with the Company’s Individual Sequence Enrichment Pattern (ISEP) technology. This method is based on phage display and its communication with the in-silico platform allows fine-tuned optimization and selection of the best drug candidates. To showcase the company’s ability to find scaffolds for any target molecule, including those that have no identified interaction partner, our new WISDOM technology identified hitherto unknown binders to a target protein while ranking the known interaction partners, as positive controls, amongst the top 0.1% hits. The new scaffolds were already confirmed by experimental data provided by industry gold standard binding assays.

“Although AI technology is rapidly advancing, the in-silico design of “ready-to-develop” drug candidates for any pharmaceutical target is still far away. We believe that the future of drug development is combining trailblazing AI and in silico technologies with state-of-the-art wet lab work. Thus, we utilize the wetlab-based ISEP platform together with the AI driven scaffold selection and design in an iterative process to achieve unprecedented selectivity and affinity in an extremely fast discovery process.” added Zalán Péterfi.

The integrated approach rapidly advances miniprotein drug candidates to transform from concept to reality. Using its upgraded technology, VRG Tx already started a new project aiming to block IL-6 trans-signaling aiming to treat chronic inflammatory diseases, and to maximize the potential of the WISDOM technology, the company has established a collaboration to utilize Komondor, a world-class High Performance Computing (HPC) infrastructure.

Furthermore, VRG Tx have started conversations with pharma partners to externalize the pipeline and with investors to join their USD 15 million Series B funding round to progress lead assets into the clinic.

About VRG Tx: VRG Therapeutics is an original biopharmaceutical R&D company located in Budapest, Hungary. VRG Tx’s vision is to leverage its unique technologies to create cures for diseases through targets and mechanisms of action that are beyond the reach of conventional biopharma approaches. VRG Tx miniprotein based portfolio addresses major unmet clinical needs including autoimmune diseases, inflammation, and oncological indications. The company has raised USD 11 million to date (USD 3.5 million in seed funding, USD 5.5 million in series A, and USD 2 million in grants) and is led by a team of professionals with experience from McKinsey and Company, Harvard Medical School, and large pharma companies.

About miniproteins: Miniproteins, which combine the benefits of small molecules and biologics, are next-generation therapeutic peptides stabilized by disulfide bridges to form a rigid structure. These peptides offer the precision and binding capabilities of monoclonal antibodies, combined with enhanced stability, minimal immunogenicity, cost-effective production, and the feasibility of oral administration.

Zalán Péterfi, PhD – Managing Director

VRG Therapeutics Plc.

zalan.peterfi@vrgtherapeutics.com

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CESAwards – We are regional finalists!

Vascular — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 12:02:00 +0000

We are pleased to inform you that based on the jury’s opinion, VRGT was selected in the Global Startup Awards program among the best emerging companies in Central Europe (CE) in two categories: Startup of the Year 2023 & Newcomer of the Year 2023! The category winners within CE will be announced in January, 2024, where in addition to the jury’s opinion, the audience’s votes (public voting) will be taken into account. Therefore, we would kindly ask you to vote for VRGT in both categories via the links below:

1. Startup of the Year 2023: https://public-voting.globalstartupawards.com/competition-public-voting/633e9631a225bb5bd095fe6b?nominationId=6513d35f8a80896cfec4ea69

2. Newcomer of the Year 2023: https://public-voting.globalstartupawards.com/competition-public-voting/633e9631a225bb5bd095fe6b?nominationId=651dbd5d8a80896cfecc8c11

MBH Bank’s Macronome Macroverse conference

Vascular — Mon, 27 Nov 2023 11:57:00 +0000

We are proud to share that our Managing Director, Zalán Péterfi has participated at the second roundtable of MBH Bank’s Macronome Macroverse conference, where the results and challenges of the Hungarian innovation ecosystem and Hungary’s position in European terms were discussed. Participants also talked about how to improve Hungary’s innovation and technology situation.

Recognition of our student researcher

Vascular — Wed, 22 Nov 2023 11:55:00 +0000

We are happy to announce that Ádám Jenőfalvi, a student researcher at VRG Therapeutics won first prize at the student association conference („TDK”) at Budapest University of Technology and Economics in Section Biotechnology, Biochemistry and Food Sciences. His thesis describes the engineering of a recombinant live biotherapeutic product (rLBP) to treat inflammatory bowel diseases. Congratulations Ádám, we are proud to see that your work is also recognised beyond our lab!

Startup Breeding 2023 Milan Awards

Vascular — Thu, 02 Nov 2023 11:51:00 +0000

We are happy and thrilled to announce that our Kv1.3 pitch was chosen as “Best Innovative Business Proposal” by a board of investors on Startup Breeding, an annual event of Cluster Nazionale Scienze della Vita ALISEI, the Italian National Cluster for Life Sciences. Furthermore, we received the Special Awards of 2i3T – Innovative Companies Incubator of the University of Turin and Bioindustry Park Silvano Fumero S.p.A. Società Benefit. It was a fantastic event and we’re grateful to the organizers for their excellent work.

BIO-Europe 2023 Startup Spotlight

Vascular — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 11:50:00 +0000

We are proud to be part of the BIO-Europe 2023 Startup Spotlight as one of the selected companies! It’s a privilege to share the stage with such forward-thinking biotech startups.

Bio Europe 2023 Munich

Vascular — Wed, 11 Oct 2023 11:46:00 +0000

We are thrilled to announce that VRG Therapeutics has been selected to present in front of top-tier VC investors in the Startup Spotlight competition at Bio Europe 2023, organized with the support of Bayer Co.Lab incubator. We pitch our Kv1.3 asset aiming to cure autoimmune diseases. You’ll have the opportunity to meet with Zalán Péterfi and Márton Megyeri Ph.D. at the event in Munich. Register now to join us! https://bit.ly/3Sm2CY8 #BioEurope

Biotech Days 2023 Pécs

Vascular — Tue, 10 Oct 2023 11:43:00 +0000

Our colleague, Patrik Szekér participated in the International Biotech Days 2023 organized by the Hungarian Biotechnology Student Association, and gave a talk on our Kv1.3 asset aiming to cure autoimmune diseases. The event was supported by VRG Therapeutics.

Startup Breeding 2023 Milan

Vascular — Mon, 25 Sep 2023 11:42:00 +0000

We are proud to announce that VRG Therapeutics was chosen to participate Startup Breeding 2023 as a presenter. The event will take place on 31 October, in Milan at Palazzo Mezzanotte.

STARTUP BREEDING 2023

Our recent fundraising is among the highest ones in Europe

Vascular — Thu, 07 Sep 2023 11:37:00 +0000

We were happy to find out that our latest fundraising was the second highest one within all European biotech companies in August!