Znomics launches obesity drug discovery program

Znomics obtained from Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), an exclusive biological license to a genetic model of obesity using the zebrafish developed in the OHSU laboratory of Znomics’s co-founder Roger Cone.

Under the direction of Stephane Berghmans, director of drug discovery at Znomics, the company intends to refine Dr Cone’s obesity model for use in the screening of small molecule compounds. The company aims to identify pre-clinical drug candidates for obesity and to partner with a pharmaceutical or biotechnology company to advance these candidates into human clinical studies.

Roger Cone, president and chief scientific officer of Znomics, said: “The effects of obesity for individual health and medical care costs are tremendous, and we believe our drug discovery platform offers the potential to more rapidly discover new therapies for the treatment of obesity while reducing overall drug development costs.”