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news.Entelos has entered an agreement with Pfizer and four universities to apply novel computational approaches to identify new drug targets relevant to diabetes and obesity.
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The consortium, called the Insulin Resistance Pathways Project (IRP Project), is comprised of top researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the University of Massachusetts (UMass), Entelos, and several research groups from within Pfizer.
The goal of the IRP Project is identify drug targets within cells which will ultimately lead to a compelling new class of diabetes drugs – drugs that will relieve insulin resistance, a major factor in diabetes and obesity. Pfizer’s initial funding for the consortium is $14.4 million over the next three years, with an option to extend for an additional two years.
The objectives of the consortium include three main activities – to collect
targeted dynamic data about insulin pathways within specific human cell types;
to use mathematical models to better understand the biological mechanisms of
these pathways and to translate findings to predict human clinical response using Entelos’s computer model of whole-body metabolism.
James Karis, president and CEO of Entelos, said: “We believe that our PhysioLab platforms and metabolic disease knowledge will help to identify pathways at the level of the cell that have the greatest impact in patients.”