Compugen Ltd. (Nasdaq: CGEN; TASE: CGEN) today announced the development and validation of an additional drug discovery platform.
Tel Aviv-based Compugen hopes to use its new viral peptides discovery platform to ultimately find treatments against inflammatory and immune related diseases. The new platform is designed to identify peptides from viral genomes for potential human therapeutic use.
The firm also announced that the new platform has led to the discovery of two novel viral peptides demonstrating in in-vitro studies the ability to suppress inflammatory responses.
Compugen vice president of research and development Dr. Yossi Cohen said, “This is the third peptide therapeutics platform we’ve developed following our previously announced GPCR peptide ligands and DAC peptide blockers discovery platforms. Each of our three discovery platforms in the peptide therapeutics area relies on a fundamentally different methodology and demonstrates our growing strength and focus in this important field of drug discovery.”
The engine of the viral peptides discovery platform is based on the concept of utilizing the virus gained knowledge on how to subvert the human immune system. This is accomplished through the use of sophisticated algorithms and in silico tools that predict a large number of potential natural peptides produced by viruses and then select those that appear to have features suggesting anti-inflammatory activities.
Nasdaq-traded shares of Compugen closed yesterday at $1.60, giving it a market cap of $45.43 million.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 23, 2008
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