Skip to content

Our Science

Targeted Protein Degradation

Why TPD?

Protein degradation offers advantages to improve clinical outcomes:

  1. Target enzymatic and non-enzymatic roles
  2. Opportunity to target less conserved regions of the protein of interest vs related family members
  3. Target historically “undruggable” proteins
  4. Catalytic mechanism reduces the drug concentration required at site of action
POI (protein of interest) added to E2/E3 ligase complex, with ubiquitin. Multiple ubiquitous added to target for degradation. Ubiquitinated POI recruited to proteasome. Proteasome degrades POI.

Targeted Protein Degradation

Cells have innate machinery called the Ubiquitin Proteasome System (UPS) to control the expression levels of proteins in normal and disease settings. Targeted heterobifunctional and molecular glue degraders can hijack the cell’s UPS to degrade disease-causing protein.

Our Pipeline

SK Life Science Labs’ pipeline and platforms are well-positioned for partnering opportunities.

Compound Indication
Discovery
Preclinical
IKZF2
PVTX-405
Solid Tumors
ER
PVTX-321
HR+ Breast Cancer
p300
Oncology
STAT3
Immunology, Oncology
SMARCA2
Oncology
Hetero­bifunctional Target
Oncology
Molecular Glue Target
Oncology

Breaking Through the Limits of TPD

SK Life Science Labs’ R&D leadership team has a proven track record in drug hunting. Together with our team of exceptional scientists, SK Life Science Labs integrates innovative platforms with deep drug-hunting expertise to defeat disease and improve patients’ lives.

Heterobifunctional TPD companies primarily use CRBN and VHL, Molecular glue TPD companies predominantly exploit CRBN of phenotypic discovery. SKLSL target-centric approach and MOPED platform expands access to a wider range of targets and E3s. (Abbreviations: CRBN, cereblon; VHL, von Hippel-Lindau)

Our team utilizes AI-enabled target identification to prioritize novel drug targets. Our core TPD platform, built upon a strong TPD knowledge base, novel E3 ligands & linkers, and machine-learning based ternary complex modeling, is further complemented by a proprietary MOPED™ molecular glue platform. SK Life Science Labs’ capabilities are leveraged from target identification through preclinical development to deliver first or best-in-class medicines to patients.

Select For More Information

Fully integrated cross-functional expertise from target identification through preclinical development

  • AI Enabled Target ID
  • Core TPD platform and libraries incorporate Prof. Shaomeng Wang’s degrader work
  • DMPK Knowledge, Novel E3 Ligands and Linkers
  • ML Based TC Modeling

AI-enabled approach provides a continuous flow of target opportunities

  • More than 40 sources of data are accessed containing >60 million data points
  • Millions of data points aggregated into ~2TB and structured into 5 different databases
  • Proprietary AI trained on well-validated targets using ~250 numeric and categorical features
  • The AI model ranks >20,000 proteins and to identify potential first-in-class targets

MOlecular Proximity Enabled Detection (MOPED™) is an innovative platform for glue discovery

  • INCREASE ACCESS TO TARGETS: Targeting structured and unstructured regions
  • INCREASE NUMBER OF LEADS: Multiplexing compounds, targets, and/or E3s
  • BROADEN BIOLOGICAL IMPACT: Exploring potential biological functions beyond TPD
  • EXPAND E3 OPPORTUNITIES: Known E3s, target matched E3s, and/or E3 agnostic

MOPED™ is composed of two modules

  • Emerald: A highly sensitive biochemical workflow to discover glues from defined drug targets and pre-selected E3s
  • Sapphire: An E3 agnostic mass spectroscopy workflow to discover glues in a cellular context against defined drug targets

MOPED™

SK Life Science Labs expands access to target biology accessible by TPD.  MOPED™ enables target & E3 agnostic glue discovery at scale.

Top