BioCurate funds Monash University project to develop a new treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension

L - R: Dr Katie Leach, Dr Helena Qin, Prof. Paul Stupple, Dr Kieran Stockton, Julian Vultaggio, Dr Lauren May, Prof. Rebecca Ritchie.

21 October 2024

A novel treatment for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is being developed by a multidisciplinary team at Monash University, with critical funding and support from BioCurate’s Proof of Concept (POC) Fund. BioCurate's involvement has been pivotal in advancing this project, providing both financial backing and industry insights to push the research forward.

PAH predominantly affects women, causing pulmonary vessel remodelling and hypertension, and eventual right-sided heart failure. It is progressive and incurable, with current treatments only providing symptomatic relief. This critical gap has led translational pharmacologist Dr Helena Qin and her team to explore small molecule drug candidates that target a G-protein coupled receptor involved in lung vessel inflammation and remodelling. They hope to develop a novel disease-modifying therapy that can halt the progression of PAH, preventing right heart failure and ultimately reducing mortality.

The support from BioCurate’s POC Fund has come at a crucial time, bridging a funding gap and helping the team to identify early leads obtained from high-throughput screening performed with the National Drug Discovery Centre that show promise for development into a lead series.

“We’ve found that there are quite limited resources in Australia for translational projects,” Dr Qin explained. “The POC fund targets early-stage therapeutic projects, which aligned perfectly with the stage of our project.”

BioCurate's contribution has gone beyond financial support, offering valuable expertise and fresh perspectives on the scientific and commercial processes.

“We were very impressed with their thinking about both the scientific and commercial aspects of the project,” Dr Qin said. “Some of those discussions were challenging – they really encouraged us to push our boundaries and think about whether we were taking the right approach.”

These discussions have led Dr Qin’s team to carefully consider the unmet need their project addresses, and think ahead to developing commercialisation and marketing strategies to ensure their project will be commercially feasible in the long term. This preparation has impacted the project on all levels, streamlining workflows and enhancing the translatability of the research.

The team led by Dr Qin is highly multidisciplinary, including chief investigators Professor Rebecca Ritchie, Head of the Heart Failure Pharmacology laboratory, Professor Paul Stupple, Director of the Australian Translational Medicinal Chemistry Facility, Dr Lauren May, Head of the GPCR Cardiac Biology laboratory, and Dr Katie Leach, a Senior Business Development Associate at Monash University.

Collaboration with clinicians from Alfred Hospital and Monash Health has ensured that the research remains aligned with real-world patient needs and current clinical management guidelines. The diversity of experience within this team is complemented by BioCurate’s industry expertise.

As the teams work together towards their goal of developing a novel therapeutic for PAH, they remain driven by the potential impact on patients' lives. “This process has brought us closer to our consumers and end-users, which feels really special,” Dr Qin said. “We all have the same alignment of goals and mission – delivering a disease-modifying therapeutic for this devastating disease.”

The original article was published by BioCurate and can be read here.

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