Ubiquigent launches novel compound library designed to target deubiquitylase enzymes

DUNDEE, U.K.—This fall, Ubiquigent Ltd., a company specializing in providing ubiquitin cell-signaling system drug discovery services and research tools, announced that it had launched what it says is the first commercially available compound library, named DUBtarget-001, comprising novel small molecules designed to target deubiquitylase (DUB) enzymes.

To mark the launch of the library, Dr. John Harris, a member of Ubiquigent’s scientific advisory board, presented DUBtarget-001 at the Society of Chemical Industry (SCI) conference.

Ubiquigent, in collaboration with the Drug Discovery Unit (DDU) at the University of Dundee, has jointly developed the library to support both commercial and academic researchers looking to either enter the ubiquitin drug discovery field or to support those with active programs but who are seeking access to additional chemical diversity.

The design of DUBtarget-001 (led by Dr. Andrew Woodland of the DDU) has been informed by DUB-related structural data to yield a library with the potential to have activity across multiple DUB families. Ubiquigent has already screened the library against USP2 (a DUB with potential roles in oncology) and demonstrated a significant number of hits from different structural classes. These structures represent multiple starting points with the potential to lead to the development of novel therapeutic and tool compounds.

The library is now available in either its physical form for screening within researchers’ own laboratories or as a dataset where the library will be screened against any of the 40 other DUB enzymes included within Ubiquigent’s DUBprofiler screening platform.

“DUB-targeted libraries are the keys that can unlock the multiple therapeutic opportunities that are emerging for the exploitation of novel DUB inhibitors,” said Ubiquigent’s executive chairman, Dr. Mark Treherne. “DUBtarget-001 is the first of a pipeline of innovative libraries that will link ubiquitin research to new drug discovery opportunities for oncology, neurodegeneration and many other chronic diseases with significant unmet medical need.”

Harris noted: “As has become clear in the kinase inhibitor field, the application of libraries that have been custom-designed with the structure and mechanism of the drug target(s) in mind is expected to be a substantially more effective route to innovative and potent starting-points for DUB candidate drugs than target-agnostic screening approaches.”