SCYNEXIS Convenes Renowned Scientists for Symposium on the Therapeutic Promise of Cyclophilin Inhibitors
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Drug discovery company SCYNEXIS, Inc. is hosting a panel of world-class experts who will convene for a scientific review of the use of cyclophilin inhibitors in the treatment of human diseases. Cyclophilin inhibition is an exciting mechanism for targeting and inactivating disease-specific protein triggers in a variety of therapeutic areas including serious viral diseases, central nervous system disorders and autoimmune diseases. The seminar, "Current Perspectives on the Role of Cyclophilin Inhibitors in the Pathophysiology and Treatment of Human Disease," will be held today, Monday June 9, and will feature the discoverer of the cyclophilin class of enzymatic proteins, Professor Dr. Gunter Fischer, managing director at the Max-Planck Institute for Enzymology of Protein Folding in Halle, Germany. Presentations will also be given by infectious disease experts from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH), including Dr. Michael Fried, Professor of Medicine and Director of Hepatology, and Dr. Joseph Eron, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases.
"Protein folding or misfolding plays a central role in the pathophysiology of a number of serious diseases, including enabling a virus to rapidly acquire drug-resistant mutations and causing the build-up of damaging plaques in a number of neurodegenerative diseases. A growing body of research has demonstrated the central role that cyclophilins play in catalyzing the folding of proteins, and their inhibition is an exciting avenue for therapeutic intervention and drug discovery," said Dr. Sam Hopkins, SCYNEXIS chief scientific officer.
"Today's seminar represents a gathering of the best research minds in the world that are dedicated to the scientific and therapeutic potential of cyclophilins," said Dr. Yves Ribeill, SCYNEXIS president & chief executive officer. "Building on our extensive medicinal chemistry expertise and our record of delivering drug compounds to our pharmaceutical customers, SCYNEXIS has assembled a foundation of intellectual property and scientific expertise that we believe makes us the leader in cyclophilin inhibitor drug discovery and development. We have discovered a novel class of non-immunosuppressive cyclophilin derivatives around which we are building a proprietary pharmaceutical pipeline."
Dr. Gunter Fischer, who is a Full Professor for Molecular Biochemistry at Martin-Luther University, Halle-Wittenberg, Germany and a Scientific Member of the Max-Planck-Society, will present a lecture titled, "Peptide bond cis/trans isomerases as pharmacological targets: overview and perspective". In 1984, he discovered the class of cyclophilin enzymatic proteins, peptidyl prolyl cis/trans isomerases. His research interests concern the folding of proteins, the relationship between folding state and biological activity and the catalytic control of the polypeptide conformation.
Dr. Michael Fried is an acknowledged expert in new drug development in hepatitis C virus (HCV) with a particular emphasis in demonstrating the clinical safety and activity of conjugated interferons. Dr. Fried will present a lecture on the "Current and future directions of HCV therapy." Dr. Fried has been involved with clinical and laboratory studies of HCV since 1990 when he served for three years as a medical staff fellow in the Liver Diseases Section of the National Institutes of Health. Dr Fried has been the principal investigator on numerous Phase 1, 2 and 3 clinical trials of various antiviral agents for chronic hepatitis B and hepatitis C. He has been inducted into the American Society of Clinical Investigation, and is a recipient of a career development award from the National Institutes of Health to provide mentorship to young clinical investigators at UNC-CH.
Dr. Joseph Eron has been involved as a principal investigator in pivotal studies involving major classes of new anti-retroviral agents including protease inhibitors, nucleoside analogs, integrase inhibitors and fusion inhibitors. Dr. Eron will present a lecture on "Antiretroviral drug discovery and new target identification in HIV-1." Dr. Eron has been involved in clinical and translational human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) research and in HIV and infectious disease clinical care at UNC-CH for 14 years. He is a principal investigator of the UNC AIDS Clinical Research Group. Dr. Eron and his research group, in collaboration with the makers of SAS software, have created a clinical and research database of 1,500 HIV-infected clinic patients. This group is also helping to establish a similar database in Lilongwe, Malawi.
About Cyclophilins:
Cyclophilins are a family of enzymatic proteins that assist in the folding of other proteins synthesized within a cell. While cyclophilin inhibitors have demonstrated their effect in immune suppression through the well-known drug Cyclosporin, which has been used for decades for transplant patients, a growing body of scientific research has indicated that cyclophilin derivatives may have potent and highly specific non-immunosuppressive activity in multiple therapeutic areas. Pathways of assisted folding play a key role in creating functional proteins, and represent an attractive target for drug discovery and development in serious viral diseases, central nervous system disorders and autoimmune diseases.
This seminar is sponsored by SCYNEXIS, Inc.
About SCYNEXIS
SCYNEXIS is a premier drug discovery and development company delivering effective and innovative drug pipeline solutions to pharmaceutical and global health partners. The Company, which is located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, is also focused on developing a proprietary internal pipeline based on cyclophilin inhibitors, a class of drugs that hold significant potential for the treatment of a broad range of diseases. Please visit our website at www.scynexis.com
Source: SCYNEXIS, Inc.
Released June 9, 2008