Collaborations Pharmaceuticals Unites Scientific Community around COVID-19 Treatment Research

By Judith Cone & Catherine Horne, Members, North Carolina Board of Science, Technology & Innovation

“When seeking out successful collaborations within the scientific community, look no further than Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc.- it’s in their name. The COVID-19 pandemic has required biotech companies across the world to rise to the occasion, and Collaborations Pharmaceuticals has done precisely that.”

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/collaborati...

Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Awarded an Administrative Supplement for Research and Development of Medical Countermeasures Against Chemical Threats

Raleigh, North Carolina – NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SCIENCES at the National Institutes of Health has awarded $124,915 to Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (CPI) under the Administrative Supplements to Promote and Expand into the Research and Development of Medical Countermeasures Against Chemical Threats. This award relates to the SBIR “MegaTox for analyzing and visualizing data across different screening systems”.

“There is an urgent need to develop medical countermeasures to address pulmonary agents, nerve agents and organophosphorus pesticides. Our approach leverages public and private data to build machine learning models for different targets involved in the physiological effects of these small molecules. Our approach builds on our MegaTox approach focused on modeling toxicology targets,” said Sean Ekins, PhD, chief executive officer of CPI.

“We are very grateful to NIH-NIEHS for their continued support on this project aiming to build machine learning models for toxicology related targets,” Ekins said.

About Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc.® performs research and development on innovative therapeutics for multiple rare and infectious diseases because we believe No disease is too Small. We partner with academics and companies to identify and translate early preclinical to clinical stage assets. We have considerable experience with preclinical and computational approaches to drug discovery and toxicity prediction. We have developed software for data curation and machine learning called Assay Central®  (www.assaycentral.org) as well as MegaTox, MegaTrans , MegaPredict.

Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., The Ohio State University and Battelle To Collaborate on a New $2.7M Defense Threat Reduction Agency Project

Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc., The Ohio State University and Battelle to collaborate on a new $2.7M Defense Threat Reduction Agency project using Machine Learning and in vitro Methods To Assess Metabolism of Organophosphates Pesticides and Chemical Warfare Agents.

RALEIGH, North Carolina (Sept 10th2019)–The Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) has awarded a four-year $2.7 million grant to Collaborations Pharmaceuticals Inc (CPI) to collaborate with The Ohio State University and Battelle to develop and experimentally validate human metabolism machine learning models for Organophosphate (OP) pesticides and chemical warfare nerve agents (CWNAs). The intent of the research is to develop better technologies and therapeutic strategies to counteract these compounds.

OP pesticide accidental exposure and intentional self-poisoning kills hundreds of thousands of people every year and the threat of exposure to OP chemical weapons is a continued security concern globally. While there is a clear understanding of the primary targets of the OPs, researchers do not have a complete picture of the metabolism of these compounds in humans and how inter-individual differences impact the response to the exposure and/or treatments.Using both computational and in vitro approaches this team will attempt to predict the likely metabolites of OPs and generate data to validate the predictions. The approach is intended to lead to improved models that can be used for predicting the metabolism of CWNAs and other OPs.

“This represents a terrific opportunity to apply our machine learning software and expertise to a real-world problem, with the potential to develop new treatments for OP exposure. We are excited to work with the fantastic groups at Ohio State (Dr. Craig McElroy) and Battelle to advance this important work. We are also grateful to DTRA for this award and being able to work on understanding the human metabolism of OPs and CWNAs using in vitro and in silico-based approaches as it will offer fundamental insights and potentially lead to other commercial products.” said Sean Ekins, PhD, chief executive officer of CPI.

“The project or effort depicted was or is sponsored by the Department of the Defense, Defense Threat Reduction Agency. The content of the information does not necessarily reflect the position or the policy of the federal government, and no official endorsement should be inferred.”

About The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy

Established in 1885, The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy is a global leader in pharmaceutical education, research, and clinical practice. As part of one of the most comprehensive health science campuses in the nation, the college is home to world class faculty, dedicated researchers and top-notch students who are leading the way in patient care outcomes. The college’s professional program is currently ranked sixth in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Learn more at pharmacy.osu.edu.

About Battelle

Every day, the people of Battelle apply science and technology to solving what matters most. At major technology centers and national laboratories around the world, Battelle conducts research and development, designs and manufactures products, and delivers critical services for government and commercial customers. Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio since its founding in 1929, Battelle serves the national security, health and life sciences, and energy and environmental industries. For more information, visit www.battelle.org.

About Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

Collaborations Pharmaceuticals, Inc. performs research and development on innovative therapeutics for multiple rare and infectious diseases. We partner with academics or companies to identify and translate early preclinical to clinical stage assets. We have considerable experience of preclinical and computational approaches to drug discovery and toxicity prediction. We have developed software for data curation and machine learning called Assay Central (www.assaycentral.org).