Proteostasis Therapeutics enters into exclusive license agreement with New York University

Proteostasis Therapeutics announced today that it has entered into an exclusive license agreement with New York University for intellectual property related to discoveries from the laboratory of David Ron, M.D., Professor of Medicine and Julius Raynes Professor of Cell Biology at NYU Langone Medical Center’s Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine. Dr. Ron’s research focuses on the Unfolded Protein Response (UPR) and his laboratory identifies new components of the cellular response to stress, which is the mechanism behind many common diseases of aging. The UPR is an important part of the Proteostasis Network (PN), the cellular machinery that maintains protein health. The exclusive license accelerates the Company’s drug discovery efforts to identify Proteostasis Regulators (PRs), small molecule drugs designed to restore protein balance. In addition, Dr. Ron has joined the Company’s Scientific Advisory Board.

“Our lab is focused on uncovering new components of the cellular stress response and understanding their role in the pathology of human diseases”

Christopher Mirabelli, Ph.D., Chairman of the Board of Proteostasis, said, “This new relationship is an example of how Proteostasis is building its intellectual assets by identifying and connecting with leading academic scientists who are elucidating PN pathways. We selectively enter into licenses in which existing intellectual property enables us to accelerate our internal efforts to identify Proteostasis Regulators in diseases of aging and therapeutic areas of high unmet medical need. We also welcome Dr. Ron, a leading UPR researcher, to our Scientific Advisory Board and believe his expertise will be valuable as we continue to build our proprietary technology platform.”

“Our lab is focused on uncovering new components of the cellular stress response and understanding their role in the pathology of human diseases,” said Dr. Ron. “The UPR pathway is implicated in a broad range of diseases, including diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and retinal degeneration. Proteostasis Therapeutics’ novel drug discovery platform, which integrates multiple PN pathways, provides an advantage in rapidly developing UPR modulators identified by our lab into potential therapeutics for these diseases.”