Hong-yu Li

Title : Synactix Inc and academic case studies of targeted therapy

Abstract:

Synactix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a biotechnology company established to help decrease the catastrophic burden cancer has placed on global health.  Instead of looking at cancer as a whole, Synactix identifies unique, malignant pathways that are amenable to therapeutic intervention.  Using bioinformatics, cooperating, interdependent pathways are identified and a single-agent is created to block both pathways at the same therapeutic dose.  In oncology, resistance is the major limitation for successful treatment of cancers and Synactix has invented an effective strategy to block multiple, malignant pathways to decrease the frequency of resistant disease and to enhance treatment response.  Synactix is revolutionizing precision medicine through the strategic targeting of multiple-disease pathways with a single-agent.  This is a breakthrough therapeutic strategy and will lead to treatments that can safely and effectively combat cancers, while simultaneously lowering its burden on global health.  In line with this approach, a drug discovery campaign was initiated to inhibit the RET or TRK tyrosine kinases in conjunction with VEGFR2.  Through development, a clinical candidate was discovered, which is a RET/VEGFR2 dual inhibitor that can block driving oncogenes while simultaneously starving the tumor by inhibiting VEGFR2 mediated angiogenesis.  The clinical candidate represents a new archetype for targeted therapy displaying that the strategic inhibition of multiple, disease pathways is well tolerated and highly efficacious compared to mono-targeted or broadly-targeted agents.  This presentation will also highlight how academic research can impact the translation outcomes from laboratory to the bed-side.
Audience take away:
• In the clinical setting, this clinical candidate can be a more efficient drug.
• This approach can translate the targeted therapeutics into drugs with more efficacy and less toxicity.

Biography:

Hong-yu Li is a Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). He is also an Arkansas Research Alliance (ARA) Scholar, the Helen Adams & ARA endowed chair in drug discovery, and co-director for the Therapeutics Science Program, Winthrop P Rockefeller Cancer Institute. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Tokyo and did postdoctoral training at Columbia University and Harvard University. He previously worked at Eli Lilly and the University of Arizona where he focused on oncology drug discovery. His current research interests are in chemical biology and drug discovery, especially for oncology related targets and phenotypes. In his lab at UAMS, a robust oncology pipeline is under development exploiting single agent polypharmacology and synergistic medicinal chemistry approaches.