Revolution Medicines Reports New Application of Tri-Complex Modality for “Undruggable” Protein Targets and Announces License to Ginkgo Bioworks to Explore Potential Use Against Novel Coronavirus - Seite 2

“We remain committed to doing our part to address the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Jason Kelly, co-founder and CEO of Ginkgo Bioworks. “Based on the early findings from this paper, we are synthesizing these compounds and screening them to validate their potential as novel antiviral therapeutics. If successful, we hope to collaborate with a pharmaceutical partner to quickly and effectively develop the drug candidate.”

The paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is titled, “Genomic discovery of an evolutionarily programmed modality for small-molecule targeting of an intractable protein surface,” and can be accessed at: https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/06/29/2006560117

About WDB002 and CEP250 Binding Compounds

WDB002 was discovered by scientists at Warp Drive Bio, a subsidiary of Revolution Medicines, using proprietary genome mining technology. It is a natural compound produced by certain bacteria that binds to and inhibits the function of CEP250, a core centrosomal protein that plays a role in interphase of the cell cycle. WDB002 binds to a featureless “coiled coil” domain of CEP250 with very high affinity by forming a tri-complex that exploits the surfaces of both CEP250 and an abundant cellular chaperone protein (called FKBP12) as its ligand-binding pocket. These scientists further created modified variants of the natural product with similar CEP250 binding activity. Revolution Medicines utilizes its proprietary tri-complex technology platform to design novel targeted therapies that inhibit elusive frontier cancer targets such as oncogenic RAS(ON) proteins.

About Revolution Medicines, Inc.

Revolution Medicines is a clinical-stage oncology company focused on developing novel targeted therapies to inhibit elusive high-value frontier cancer targets within notorious growth and survival pathways, with particular emphasis on RAS and mTOR signaling pathways. The company possesses sophisticated structure-based drug discovery capabilities built upon deep chemical biology and cancer pharmacology know-how and innovative, proprietary technologies that enable the creation of small molecules tailored to unconventional binding sites.