SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Cullgen Inc., a leading biotechnology company developing small molecule therapeutics based on its proprietary uSMITE™ platform of targeted protein degradation technology, today announced that Drs. Jian Jin and Yue Xiong, co-founders of Cullgen, have published a review of targeted protein degradation technology as well as a comprehensive summary of degraders in development for the treatment of cancer in the prestigious journal, Nature Reviews Cancer. The article reviews the history and mechanism of targeted protein degradation, the ubiquitin-proteasome system, and the key principles required for design of heterobifunctional small-molecule degraders. The publication also contains an in-depth review of the current state and challenges associated with the use of common E3 ligands. The article is entitled “Advancing targeted protein degradation for cancer therapy”. The complete publication can be found on-line here: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41568-021-00365-x

“The use of targeted protein degradation principles by pharmaceutical companies has now become ubiquitous in drug development strategies”, said Dr. Jin. “We are thrilled to see that forty years of research on the ubiquitin-proteasome system has made such a significant contribution to drug discovery”, added Dr. Xiong, Cullgen’s Chief Scientific Officer. “We look forward to witnessing more targeted protein degraders entering human clinical trials in the near future”.

“As pioneers in ubiquitin ligase and protein degradation field, the contributions of Drs. Jin and Xiong have positioned Cullgen as one of the leading companies in this revolution of drug discovery. Since the founding of Cullgen about three years ago, we have built an extensive therapeutic pipeline utilizing conventional and novel E3 ligands developed in house”, said Ying Luo, Chairman and President of Cullgen. “Our co-founders’ visionary insights into the complicated ubiquitin-proteasome system provide Cullgen with a clear advantage in the development of the next generation of targeted therapies.”

About Cullgen Inc.:

Cullgen is a privately held biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development of first-in-class new chemical entities (NCEs) for the treatment of diseases lacking effective therapeutic approaches. Cullgen is developing our proprietary technology platform, ubiquitin-mediated, small molecule-induced target elimination technology, (uSMITE™), based on recent advances in the science of protein degradation. Typically, drugs are designed to interact with the functional sites of proteins and block their activities. Cullgen is developing uSMITE™ to expand the drug design paradigm beyond functional site inhibition, to make it possible to eliminate previously “undruggable” enzymes and proteins by targeted destruction. Cullgen also intends to use the uSMITE™ technology to harness the ubiquitin proteasome system, a multi-step biochemical process that controls protein degradation in all cells. As a result of years of research on the proteasome system and key discoveries about its assembly, Cullgen’s founders have previously demonstrated that the underlying technology can rapidly generate a large number of highly potent, selective, and bioavailable compounds. Furthermore, this process is significantly more cost effective compared with traditional drug discovery approaches. For more information, visit www.cullgen.com.

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