Xeureka begins AI drug discovery support for FunPep research on antibody-inducing peptides

August 07, 2024

Xeureka Inc. (“Xeureka”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsui & Co., Ltd. has signed a contract research agreement with FunPep Co., Ltd. (Ibaraki, Osaka; President: Toshimi Miyoshi; “FunPep”) to support AI drug discovery research on antibody-inducing peptides.

Antibody-inducing peptides are therapeutic peptide vaccines that are expected to produce therapeutic efficacy by inducing the production of antibodies against target proteins in a patient’s body. FunPep is strengthening its research and development pipeline through the creation of candidate antibody-inducing peptide compounds against various target proteins.

In designing candidate compounds for antibody-inducing peptides, it is important to rapidly select epitopes (short peptides to which antibodies bind) that strongly induce antibody production to inhibit the function of the target protein.

The combination of FunPep’s STEP UP, a drug discovery platform technology for antibody-directed peptides, with Xeureka’s computational drug discovery technology will enable highly accurate epitope design based on three-dimensional structural data for complex target proteins and is expected to accelerate the creation of candidate compounds for antibody-directed peptides.

Xeureka will continue to provide advanced computational drug discovery solutions and a large-scale high performance computing environment to significantly improve the efficiency and success rate of drug discovery research.

 

【About FunPep Co., Ltd.】

  • Address: 7-7-15 Saito Asagi, Ibaraki, Osaka, Japan
  • President: Toshimi Miyoshi
  • Established: October 2013
  • Business: Developing next-generation “Antibody Inducing Peptide” vaccines utilizing functional peptides with immune-enhancing functions and functional peptide drugs for skin ulcers, as well as promoting healthcare and cosmetics business as a member of the FunPep group.
  • URL: https://www.funpep.co.jp/

 

【About Xeureka Inc.】

  • Address: 1-2-1 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan
  • President: Akiko Mutai
  • Established: November 2021
  • Shareholders: Mitsui and Co., Ltd. (100%)
  • Business: Providing AI drug discovery support services and high-performance computing environments (supercomputers) to pharmaceutical and biotech companies, as well as conducting joint research and development for the purpose of drug discovery.
  • URL: https://xeureka.co.jp/
    ：https://tokyo-1.ai/
BACK