Dong-A ST (170900.KS) is moving to develop antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) using artificial intelligence-based antibody design technology.
The company said on the 1st that it had signed a joint research agreement with Galux, an AI drug discovery firm, to develop new ADCs. Often called guided-missile cancer drugs, ADCs link an antibody that recognizes a specific target to a cell-killing drug, known as a payload, through a linker, allowing the treatment to selectively attack cancer cells.
The joint research combines Dong-A ST's ADC development capabilities with Galux's AI-based antibody design technology to identify differentiated ADC drug candidates for novel targets that have no approved therapies. Dong-A ST also counts Aptis, an ADC drug and platform developer, among its subsidiaries.
Under the agreement, Galux plans to use its AI protein design platform, GaluxDesign, to design antibody candidates for ADCs on a de novo basis. The de novo approach designs protein structures and sequences with desired functions and properties from scratch. By precisely reflecting the structural and functional characteristics of target proteins, the work aims to produce novel antibody candidates with target recognition properties suited to therapeutic development.
"By applying AI-based antibody design technology to ADC research and development, we can more systematically verify the feasibility of development for novel targets," said Oh Yun-seok, executive vice president at Dong-A ST. "Building on the ADC development capabilities Dong-A ST has accumulated, we will secure competitive candidates and advance them into best-in-class new drugs."
