Rare Daily Staff
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine awarded Rubedo Life Sciences a $1.5 million grant to support research and development of a regenerative therapy for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis targeting senescent lung stem cells.
Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic, progressive, fibrosing lung disease of unknown cause with few treatment options and a poor prognosis. Patients experience symptoms including shortness of breath and difficulty performing daily activities, such as walking and talking.
Rubedo Life Sciences has partnered with Cedars-Sinai to investigate the development of novel selective senolytics designed to clear senescent cells implicated in IPF. Rubedo’s proprietary Alembic drug discovery platform combines computational and chemistry proprietary technologies to generate novel prodrugs that selectively target multiple pathologic cell types (including rare cell types) driving age-related diseases.
The grant funding will enable Rubedo to characterize senescence cells, including senescent stem and progenitor cells in the lung of patients affected by IPF, a novel therapeutic opportunity to develop disease-modifying interventions for this chronic degenerative disease, as well as screen a library of senolytic small molecule prodrugs on IPF primary cells. The goal is to develop a clinical study of the lead senolytic compound on the humanized IPF model.
Senescent cells are a pathogenic cell type that emerges with disease, which are pro-inflammatory, pro-fibrotic and pro-cancerogenic cells caused by different types of cellular stress and damage. As individuals age, senescent cells accumulate in the body in multiple tissues. Cellular senescence is a master regulator of aging and drive many age-related diseases.
“Our team has shown promising results in preclinical studies and look forward to identifying and nominate a small molecule development candidate with the potential to address a significant unmet need in patients who suffer from IPF and could become a new treatment option to improve the quality of life for affected individuals,” said Marco Quarta, CEO and co-founder of Rubedo Life Sciences.
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