Queen’s University Belfast enters collaboration and licensing agreement with Ipsen to progress FLIP inhibitor project which has been supported by Domainex

Saffron Walden, 26th January 2022 / Sciad Newswire / Domainex Ltd., a leading provider of integrated drug discovery services to life science organisations globally, is delighted that Professors Daniel Longley, Tim Harrison and colleagues at Queen’s University Belfast have entered into a collaboration and licensing agreement with Ipsen. The agreement provides an exclusive licence to research, develop, manufacture and commercialise FLIP inhibitors. Domainex has supported the FLIP inhibitor programme from its inception.

At the start of the project, Domainex conducted a LeadBuilder virtual screen that generated the initial hit matter. Following this success, it worked with the Queen’s team to provide integrated medicinal chemistry services to develop the initial hits. To further advance this cutting-edge research into the role of FLIP inhibitors in cancer, Domainex also supported Queen’s in securing a Wellcome Trust Seeding Drug Discovery award.

FLIP is a major apoptosis-regulatory protein that is frequently overexpressed in haematological and solid tumours (including colorectal, lung and pancreatic cancer). FLIP has been implicated in the regulation of cell death, is a key oncology target and has been shown to be upregulated with tumour progression in a variety of cancers.

Dr Ray Boffey, Executive Director of Medicines Research at Domainex, commented: “The Domainex drug discovery team is proud to have delivered a series of FLIP inhibitors for the Queen’s team, and we hope that these lead to first-in-class drugs that will improve the lives of patients with cancer.”

Tom Mander, CEO of Domainex, added: “We are very pleased that our successful collaboration with Queen’s and the Wellcome Trust has generated a set of FLIP inhibitors to warrant further investigation by Ipsen. It is further testament of the power of our integrated drug discovery engine to deliver potential breakthrough new medicines to treat debilitating diseases and demonstrates the value that our team brings to our partners.”

Professor Daniel Longley, Deputy Director of the Patrick G. Johnston Centre for Cancer Research at Queen’s, added: “It has been an absolute pleasure working with Dr Boffey and the Domainex team on this project. Without their first class medicinal chemistry expertise and the use of their Leadbuilder virtual screening platform at the outset of the programme, we would not have been able to secure the support of The Wellcome Trust and advance the programme to the stage it has now reached.”

Professor Tim Harrison, McClay Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at Queen’s and Co-PI, went on to comment: “We are excited about the potential of the novel, first-in-class small molecule FLIP inhibitors that we have been able to develop and thank Domainex for its support of the medicinal chemistry programme which has allowed us to progress the programme to this stage”.

Dr Lynsey Bilsland, Wellcome Trust Innovation Lead, added: “The FLIP inhibitor program is an excellent example of using novel ideas in drug discovery to try and improve cancer outcomes. Domainex was instrumental in supporting this. We have high confidence in the teams at Ipsen and Queen’s in further developing this technology into the clinic.”

ENDS

For further information, please contact:

Domainex
Dr Tom Mander
E: tom.mander@domainex.co.uk

Media Relations - Sciad Communications
Deborah Cockerill / Juliette Craggs / Darya Shulakova
T: +44 (0)20 3405 7892
E: domainex@sciad.com

Notes to Editors

About Domainex Ltd.

Domainex is a leading integrated medicines research service partner working with ambitious life science organisations from around the globe. We have been setting new standards in research since 2001, working collaboratively with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, patient foundations and leading academic institutions globally.

We provide innovative and customised assay and structural biology combined with computational, synthetic, medicinal and analytical chemistry services to advance disease research projects of our partners, from target expression to pre-clinical development candidate nomination. Our innovative science and extensive technical capabilities enable us to produce novel medicine candidates to treat diseases. We work closely and collaboratively with our customers to understand their aspirations, bringing our ideas, know-how and wealth of experience to bear on their projects.

Our highly qualified and experienced team of dedicated research scientists has an unrivalled breadth of knowledge, access to a wide range of technologies and a proven track record of successful innovation in solving research challenges. This includes being named on over 60 patent applications claiming invention of numerous candidate drugs. We aim to deliver successful outcomes efficiently and quickly, setting the highest possible benchmark in medicines research.

Full information about Domainex and our award-winning services can be found at www.domainex.co.uk.

About Wellcome 

Wellcome supports science to solve the urgent health challenges facing everyone. We support discovery research into life, health and wellbeing, and we’re taking on three worldwide health challenges: mental health, global heating and infectious diseases. 

About Queen's University Belfast

Queen’s University Belfast is a member of the Russell Group UK research-intensive universities, providing world-class education underpinned by world-class research. Founded as Queen’s College in 1845, it became a university in its own right in 1908. Today, it is an international centre of research and education, with a student-centred ethos. The University has won the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education on seven occasions - the most recent being for world-class achievement in Shared Education and global cyber security. Queen’s is ranked 21st in the world for international outlook (Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2021) and currently ranked ninth in the world for research collaboration. 

Queen’s is globally connected and networked with strategic partnerships across the world. The University is ranked top in the UK for commercialising research (Octopus Ventures 2019 and 2020) and for its participation in Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP). 

Four Global Research Institutes are the University’s flagships for interdisciplinary research in areas of major societal challenge, including cyber securing, public health and Queen’s is one of only 19 holders of a prestigious Athena SWAN Gold Award, aimed at advancing women in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine.  

With more than 24,000 students and 4,200 staff, it is a dynamic and diverse institution, a magnet for inward investment, a patron of the arts and a global player in areas ranging from biomedical and clinical studies to sustainability, and from pharmaceuticals to creative writing.