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 18.01.2022

IRB Barcelona and Almirall join forces to discover new therapies for serious dermatological diseases

The global biopharmaceutical company Almirall, focused on skin health, and the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), based in the Barcelona Science Park, announced today a research collaboration to identify new oral treatments for immune-inflammatory skin diseases with remaining high unmet medical needs using molecular glue degraders, a novel therapeutic modality. These monovalent degraders offer a new avenue to induce the degradation of potentially disease-causing proteins that cannot be targeted with conventional therapeutic agents.

The collaboration brings together Almirall’s scientific, dermatological, and data analysis knowledge with the expertise of the IRB Barcelona’s Targeted Protein Degradation and Drug Discovery lab, led by Dr. Cristina Mayor-Ruiz. Recently awarded with an ERC Starting Grant, Dr. Mayor-Ruiz is a reputed expert on targeted protein degradation and pioneer investigator in the areas of the rational screening of molecular glues as well as the elucidation of their mechanism of action. Through this partnership, Almirall is expanding its toolbox of Targeted Protein Degradation approaches by entering the field of molecular glues.

Almirall scientists have identified several proteins whose abnormal function is associated with inflammatory immune skin diseases. However, many of these potentially therapeutically relevant proteins are not amenable to conventional small-molecule inhibitors, as they lack defined ligand-binding pockets. Molecular glue degraders can harness and reprogram natural cellular mechanisms to selectively remove those disease-driving proteins from human tissues. They can do so by promoting interactions (“gluing”) between these therapeutically relevant proteins and the machinery used by cells to naturally tag and destroy proteins.

“This exciting collaboration underlines Almirall’s R&D commitment to provide innovative treatment options to patients suffering from severe skin diseases. It also builds on complementary core expertise of each partner to facilitate research and drug development. We are eager to start working with Dr. Cristina Mayor-Ruiz’s group in the development of molecular glue therapeutic and are convinced that this partnership has the potential to address unmet needs in dermatological diseases.”, states Dr. Thomas Huber, Head of Research at Almirall.

“We are very excited about this collaboration with Almirall. It’s an amazing opportunity to put their knowledge and experience in dermatology, together with our expertise in molecular glues to accelerate drug discovery to treat skin diseases. The biochemical characteristics of molecular glues make them suitable candidates, and this innovative approach could really mark a turning point in dermatological pharmacology. So much looking forward to making this vision a reality together with Almirall´s fantastic team”, explains Dr. Cristina Mayor-Ruiz, Ph.D., junior group leLeader at IRB Barcelona.

» For further information: IRB Barcelona website [+]