Rumi Scientific Announces Partnership with X‑Chem for Development of Lead Candidate in Huntington’s Disease
NEW YORK, Dec. 05, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Rumi Scientific (“Rumi”), a developer of therapies for rare and neurodegenerative diseases using its high throughput organoid phenotypic screening platform, today announced that it has entered into a partnership with X-Chem, the leading provider of innovative solutions in early-stage drug discovery, through which X-Chem will develop a lead candidate BRD9 inhibitor for the treatment of Huntington’s Disease (HD).
RUMI Scientific has identified bromodomain 9 (BRD9), an epigenetic reader, as a novel therapeutic target for HD with the potential to modify the disease’s progression. The company has successfully validated this target in the R6/2 model of HD and in cellular models that replicate various aspects of the HD phenotype. A key result from these studies is that lowering of BRD9 levels can restore striatal volume a significant observation demonstrating disease modifying potential.
“BRD9 inhibition is a novel target for the treatment of HD identified by our proprietary high throughput organoid phenotypic screening platform,” said Allen Fienberg, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Rumi. “We have previously demonstrated, in vitro, that BRD9 inhibition rescues several of the biochemical dysfunctions known to occur in HD and thus could be disease modifying. We look forward to working closely with the team at X-Chem on the development of the lead molecule, and to advancing it toward clinical studies.”
X-Chem is a leading drug discovery CRO with a proven track record in developing brain permeable compounds within the bromodomain class. Their expertise lies in leveraging state-of-the-art screening, advanced computational chemistry and machine learning, specialized synthesis, and process development to advance the most promising lead compounds, maintaining a focus on quality through multi-parameter optimization. Together, RUMI and X-Chem will meticulously design a screening cascade that maximizes speed, efficiency, predictive accuracy, and translational validity, harnessing RUMI’s expertise in HD assays at the cellular and tissue levels.
“We are excited to be partnering with RUMI Scientific in their pursuit of a lead candidate iBRD9 for HD” said Matt Clark, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of X-Chem. “RUMI Scientific’s profound understanding of HD biology and their innovative drug discovery platform make them an ideal partner. We are particularly excited about the unique promise of the Rumi platform and its potential to discover additional novel targets that we can take to the next level.”
About Rumi Scientific
Rumi Scientific’s mission is to identify and develop novel therapeutics for rare and neurodegenerative diseases by employing its revolutionary synthetic human tissue platform to produce more predictive data leading to a safe and faster clinical trial process. The Company’s lead program is an orally available bromodomain-containing protein 9 (BRD9) inhibitor in lead optimization for the treatment of Huntington’s disease. Founded in 2016, Rumi licensed foundational technology from The Rockefeller University developed by co-founders Ali H. Brivanlou, Ph.D., and Eric D. Siggia, Ph.D. For more information on Rumi Scientific, please see www.rumiscientific.com or contact info@rumiscientific.com.