Navigo Proteins and Nostrum Biodiscovery have joined forces to co-develop a new cutting-edge pipeline of de novo designed ubiquitin-based Affilin ligands, expanding Navigo’s proprietary Affilin technology.

With a small size, excellent stability, and high modularity, Affilin are ideally suited for developing next-generation targeted therapeutics, like Affilin-based radiotheranostics, drug conjugates and more. Combining artificial intelligence (AI) and molecular modelling (MM) tools with the Affilin discovery platform, the collaboration aims
to enhance the efficiency of developing novel binders with high affinity and specificity to a target protein. The concept relies on smartly designing sequences based on Navigo’s proprietary database, and then accurately predicting the fitness with MM approaches.

Sergi Roda, Head of Protein Engineering at Nostrum Biodiscovery, said: “Thanks to the collaboration with Navigo Proteins, Nostrum Biodiscovery has been able to benchmark its AI+MM pipeline to design scaffold protein-based binders through experimental validation.” Dr Ulrich Haupts, CSO at Navigo Proteins commented: “Due to their small size, Affilin ligands are very well suited for modern AI-based approaches. In this mutually beneficial partnership, Nostrum’s technology provides an excellent opportunity to accelerate the Affilin discovery process, and the know-how and infrastructure at Navigo, provide valuable feedback for optimization of Nostrum’s protein design approaches.”

Despite many recent advances, the need for better solutions for cancer patients is still very high. This collaboration supports the fast and efficient development of targeted solutions like ADCs and radiopharmaceuticals by streamlining the Affilin discovery process. Ultimately, the combined expertise of Nostrum Biodiscovery and Navigo Proteins aims to enable a much faster development of Precision Medicines with a higher success rate than previously possible.