15 August 2022 - - Australia-based epigenetics company EpiAxis Therapeutics and US-based biotech company Peptilogics ave entered a collaboration to leverage AI for drug discovery to inhibit epigenetic oncology targets, aiming to reprogram cancer cells and drive immune reinvigoration, the companies said.

The collaboration will combine EpiAxis Therapeutics' deep epigenetic expertise and Peptilogics' AI platform (Nautilus) to advance drug discovery for cancers that escape existing therapies through epigenetic change, including metastatic breast cancer.

Peptilogics' Nautilus platform enables in silico predictive peptide design across diverse targets to efficiently access new functional chemical space and design therapeutics.

Additionally, Peptilogics' purpose-built supercomputer accelerates model development, prediction, and evaluation of peptide sequences to produce higher quality hits with greater chance of success.

This strategic partnership follows the recent publication of the results of EpiAxis' pioneering clinical trial EPI-PRIMED in leading cancer journal Frontiers in Oncology.

The study was the first time an epigenetic inhibitor has been used in combination with chemotherapy to treat metastatic cancer.

The results provided proof of concept for the company's drug development program for its first-in-class therapies to inhibit nuclear LSD1.

EpiAxis is a drug development company that aims to make cancer a chronic disease rather than a fatal one, by using epigenetic science to create a completely different approach to cancer treatment.

Its therapies work differently to existing - and often toxic - treatments by reprogramming the cancer cells back towards normal cells.

Peptilogics engineers peptide therapeutic candidates to radically improve the treatment landscape for patients with life-threatening diseases.

Through biological and pharmaceutical expertise, novel artificial intelligence algorithms, and purpose-built super-computing, Peptilogics is advancing an extensive therapeutic pipeline and accelerating discovery efforts at a pace and scale that was previously impossible.

Peptilogics is backed by visionary investors in life science and technology including Peter Thiel, Presight Capital, Founders Fund, CARB-X, and Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.