{"id":5127,"date":"2025-02-07T10:10:51","date_gmt":"2025-02-07T15:10:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/its-cuthemedev1.carleton.ca\/chemistry\/?p=5127"},"modified":"2025-08-15T11:56:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T15:56:15","slug":"fast-tracking-drug-therapies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/chemistry\/2025\/fast-tracking-drug-therapies\/","title":{"rendered":"Fast-Tracking Drug Therapies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Fast-Tracking Drug Therapies\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Fast-Tracking Drug Therapies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Private Sector Partnerships Expedite Pharmaceutical Research<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

By <\/span>Dan Rubinstein<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drug development is a complex, costly and time-consuming process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To ensure that pharmaceuticals are safe and effective, the interval between a laboratory breakthrough and a therapy that\u2019s ready for clinical trials can be a decade or more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That long wait is no comfort to patients who are suffering from debilitating or potentially deadly medical conditions. The price of new treatments can also be a bitter pill for families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But a pair of Carleton University researchers are playing key roles in promising efforts to accelerate health advances<\/a> from the lab to the market and, at the same time, make some meds more affordable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Scientists
Photo by Chris Snow<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Biochemists Kyle Biggar<\/a> and Jeff Smith<\/a> both work with startup companies based in Carleton\u2019s Health Sciences Building<\/a>. These collaborations, supported by local biotech accelerator Capital BioVentures<\/a>, are focused on springing off university research to swiftly improve health outcomes for people across Canada and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From Bench to Bedside<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Biggar works with peptides<\/a>, short, Lego-like chains of amino acids that can be used to target problems within cells, and to treat cancer, metabolic disorders and illnesses caused by microorganisms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biggar and his group test peptides created by his Carleton engineering colleague Jim Green<\/a>\u2018s AI algorithm to determine which ones have the potential to target problematic cells. Once these candidates are identified, the team conducts wet-lab experiments to validate their computational models and then selects therapeutic candidates, a step toward medical use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is where NuvoBio<\/a> comes into the picture, moving its head office onto Carleton\u2019s campus in fall 2024. The company, co-founded by Biggar and former Corel Corporation CEO Michael Cowpland, expedites the development of peptide therapeutics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Carleton University biochemist Kyle Biggar (Photo by Chris Snow)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n
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\u201cTo bring innovation closer to patients,\u201d Biggar says, \u201cwe\u2019ve teamed up with an exceptional Canadian entrepreneur to bring our medicine from bench to bedside.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

NuvoBio\u2019s development pipeline includes peptides that show potential in oncology and infectious diseases. But for now, the company is concentrating on a product called NeoPeptix that\u2019s effective at treating Cryptococcus neoformans<\/em>, the pathogen that causes fungal meningitis and is responsible for 20 per cent of all HIV-related deaths globally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early preclinical tests indicate that NeoPeptix is significantly more potent than available therapeutics. NuvoBio is aiming to submit a request for authorization to begin clinical trials to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by 2027.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cOften, a researcher will make a therapeutic lead, then publish a paper or maybe patent it, but they don\u2019t know where to go next,\u201d says Biggar.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re motivated to translate scientific discovery into practical healthcare solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Fixing\u2019 Faulty Genes<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Like peptide therapeutics, gene therapy is a rapidly evolving medical technique that\u2019s used to treat diseases and conditions such as cancer, cystic fibrosis, diabetes and AIDS. It can involve exposing a patient to a virus that \u201cfixes\u201d the faulty gene at the core of the ailment and then stops replicating itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These viral medicines are difficult and very costly to manufacture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A dozen years ago, Carleton\u2019s Jeff Smith helped longtime collaborator Jean-Simon Diallo<\/a> from the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute<\/a> develop a set of molecules that enhanced the growth of viral medicines. That advance prompted Diallo to co-found a company that has developed a line of proprietary cell enhancers to increase the yield and improve the quality of viral medicines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Carleton University biochemist Jeff Smith (Photo by Chris Snow)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Virica<\/a>, which is located beside NuvoBio, is successful, according to Smith, because its technology has the potential to reduce the financial barriers to effective treatments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith<\/a> specializes in mass spectrometry<\/a>, analyzing the chemical composition of substances and how their molecular structures change over time, a technique that\u2019s central to the creation of drugs for a wide range of conditions and is a crucial part of Virica\u2019s process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This collaboration also gives Carleton students a chance to contribute to leading-edge research and, potentially, to step into jobs after graduation \u2014 \u201ca seamless transition between environments,\u201d says Smith.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cThe opportunities for this type of medicine are phenomenal,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great to help industry solve analytical challenges, but there\u2019s an extra layer of gratification in making grassroots scientific discoveries with another researcher and seeing that turn into a company that\u2019s helping produce advanced therapeutics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Companies like Virica and NuvoBio, which are ultimately dedicated to ensuring that patients have access to safe, effective and lower-cost treatments as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"An
Photo by Chris SnowOriginal Post: Fast-Tracking Drug Therapies: Private Sector Expedites Research<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fast-Tracking Drug Therapies Private Sector Partnerships Expedite Pharmaceutical Research By Dan Rubinstein Drug development is a complex, costly and time-consuming process. To ensure that pharmaceuticals are safe and effective, the interval between a laboratory breakthrough and a therapy that\u2019s ready for clinical trials can be a decade or more. That long wait is no comfort […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5129,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5127"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5132,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5127\/revisions\/5132"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/chemistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}