Dr. Huib Ovaa is principal investigator of Chemical Biology Laboratories at NKI and a member of FORMA’s deubiquitinase (DUB) investigator network.
As part of the deal, FORMA and Ovaa will advance the research, discovery and clinical application of highly-selective, irreversible therapeutics.
This represents a distinct and additional agreement between FORMA and Dr. Ovaa, with the first agreement signed in the area of DUBs in July 2013.
FORMA Therapeutics chief scientific officer and head of Research and Development Kenneth Bair said the company is happy about exploring the therapeutic potential of covalent drug binders with Dr. Huib Ovaa’s discovery laboratory.
"The unique reactivity profile of the propargyl moiety will be examined across a broad variety of cysteine-containing proteins, initially to understand the distinctly different microenvironments of proteins and their potential utility in creating breakthrough drugs," Bair said.
"Dr. Ovaa’s laboratory has solved a number of challenging problems at the interface between chemistry, biology and medicine, and we look forward to a productive partnership to create next-generation covalent inhibitors."
Cysteine residues play a major role in the catalytic action of many enzymes, which implicated in a broad range of diseases include various families of proteases such as cathepsins, caspases and deubiquitinating enzymes, but also many phosphatases.