THE ECM platform
Reshaping Target ID, Drug Discovery and Development
The world’s first human extracellular matrix-based platform for target identification and drug discovery.
88%
of drugs fail during during clinical development
Improving translational data and models to decode biology & improve clinical trial success rates
Just 12% of drugs that enter clinical development are ultimately successfully approved for market use. Candidates often fail due to lack of efficacy when finally tested in humans in Ph 2 or 3 clinical trials. A major contributor to this high failure rate is the translational limitations of current in vitro and in vivo models used in research.
These limitations have impeded the discovery of anti-fibrotic therapies where most discovery programmes have relied on in vitro systems using mammalian cells grown on artificial substrates in single-layer sheets or artificial 3D substrates. These models do not accurately represent the composition of human tissues and ignore critical biochemical and biophysical cues from the ECM. To improve the success rate of drug discovery, Engitix thinks beyond cells alone and incorporates the human extracellular matrix (ECM) into our models to recreate the natural microenvironment more closely.
Reshaping tissue fibrosis and solid tumour drug discovery
The process of ECM remodelling is a common denominator driving the progression of tissue fibrosis and solid tumours. However, the study of ECM is an overlooked area of drug discovery for two key reasons: 1) an incomplete understanding of the ECM-specific changes in disease; and 2) a paucity of preclinical models to study the impact of these changes and evaluate therapeutic strategies.
Engitix is reshaping drug discovery for fibrosis and cancer by dissecting changes to the ECM in disease and using bioactive, human ECM in preclinical models to study the biological impact of those changes.
Engitix aims to identify novel and more relevant therapeutic targets by deciphering disease-associated changes to the composition of this acellular environment. We can then investigate the biological impact of those changes on the initiation and progression of fibrosis, tumours and metastases using our proprietary 3D human ECM cell culture models.
Understanding the mechanisms leading to the dysregulation of ECM composition, structure, and abundance will enable the discovery of novel therapeutic strategies that can alter the trajectory of these pathologies and improve the health of patients with fibrosis and solid tumours.
Our platform
Our human ECM-based discovery platform is applicable to multiple organs, indications, therapeutic strategies, and modalities.
The extracellular matrix
Often overlooked in discovery efforts, the ECM is the bioactive acellular environment that provides structural support, biophysical cues, and biochemical signals to cells that impact the phenotype of cells in the microenvironment.
