Octant

Protein misfolding diseases present unique challenges in drug discovery that require modern, innovative solutions. Read our latest blog post below to learn how Octant is addressing these hurdles to engineer first-in-class corrector therapies for conditions like the largest cause of genetic blindness, Retinitis Pigmentosa. Link here: https://lnkd.in/g4-TJzkP

Octant is recruiting our next class of Octant Apprentices! We’re looking for curious, driven soon-to-be graduates to join us in pushing the boundaries of drug discovery. As an apprentice, you’ll work closely with a scientist mentor, developing technical skills in our core technologies and contributing directly to programs that aim to transform medicine. Applications are open through January 17th, 2025. Learn more and apply here: https://lnkd.in/gm_4vuZE We can’t wait to meet the next class of Octant Apprentices and see what they accomplish!

Exciting times at Octant! We’re partnering with University of California, San Francisco, Open Molecular Software Foundation, and Dr. John Chodera under a $30.5M ARPA-H grant to develop AI models that predict and prevent drug side effects earlier in development. Together, we’re accelerating drug discovery through the newly formed OpenADMET Consortium. Learn more about the ARPA-H grant and the OpenADMET Consortium here: https://openadmet.org/ 

🎉Exciting news, our latest preprint is now live! By substantially improving deep mutational scanning (DMS) to detect subtle quantitative effects of protein function, we were able to unlock new uses for drug discovery and development. Using these methods, we systematically mapped thousands of melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) variants and their impact on signaling pathways. Our findings highlight the potential to design pathway-specific drugs and identify variants amenable to therapeutic intervention. This work offers new possibilities for the future of drug discovery targeting GPCRs like MC4R, which is linked to obesity. Dive into the preprint here: https://lnkd.in/gEMZAwNV

Next Wednesday, at the Morgan Stanley Healthcare Conference, we’ll be in NYC to present on Octant’s platform-built small molecule correctors. We’re excited to share more about our progress building drugs for autosomal dominant Retinitis Pigmentosa, Fabry disease, and beyond.

Octant’s very own L. Naomi Handly gave a talk earlier this week on scalable synthetic biology for drug discovery! Check out the accompanying interview she gave (linked below) for a peek into Naomi’s view on the field.

In the fourth and final part of our series on Octant’s multiplexing capabilities, we cover the power of Deep Mutational Scans (DMS) to map function onto protein structure. Read our blog post below to learn how we use DMS to supercharge each stage of drug discovery by peering into the behavioral intricacies of thousands of protein variants at a time. https://lnkd.in/gV5PHyCK

In the third installment of our series on Octant’s applications of multiplexing, we dive into a new type of direct-to-biology drug discovery we’ve pioneered using multiplexing to rapidly develop better cell activity reporters. Click below to learn about how we design, build, test, and learn from hundreds of optimizations at a time to gain novel insights into what’s happening in cells! https://lnkd.in/g9cNHh5e

Octonauts Alice, Diane, and Michelle had a great time at #BIO2024 last week, where Michelle participated on a panel discussing cross-border privacy challenges of Real World Data!

We’re in Miami this week for the Goldman Sachs Global Healthcare Conference, where our CEO Sri Kosuri will be presenting on Octant’s purpose-built platform for targeting protein misfolding diseases, including progress on our autosomal dominant Retinitis Pigmentosa program.