TES Pharma and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) entered a new research and development collaboration on novel small molecule modulators of the kynurenine pathway as therapies for metabolic disorders and age-related diseases.

The collaboration brings together TES Pharma, a research-based biotech company led by professor Roberto Pellicciari, scientific co-founder of Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Inc, with state of the art research facilities in Corciano, Perugia and long running experience in modulators of the kynurenine pathway and metabolic disorder drug discovery, with the Laboratory of Integrative and Systems Physiology (LISP) at EPFL, led by professor Johan Auwerx, professor and Nestlé Chair in Energy Metabolism, pioneers in the role of NAD+ biosynthesis in metabolic disorders and ageing.

Professor Roberto Pellicciari, president and chief scientific officer of TES Pharma said “Combining our respective expertise provides an exciting platform for novel drug discovery with a world leader in metabolic disorders and ageing. Taking forward small molecule therapies for these multi-faceted diseases requires detailed knowledge of the underlying basic biology, so we’re very excited about the opportunity work with LISP and Professor Auwerx to develop new disease-modifying therapies for these disorders.”

“The collaboration with TES Pharma capitalises on our interests in signalling and transcriptional events that underlie the pathogenesis of ageing and many metabolic diseases, and will pave the way for novel therapeutic agents for these diseases,” said professor Johan Auwerx. “Our long-standing and fruitful collaboration with professor Pellicciari will be an assurance for success.”

The research of the Laboratory of Integrative and Systems Physiology (LISP) aims to understand how transcription factors and transcriptional cofactors, act as sensors for molecules of nutritional, metabolic or pharmacological origin. The research of the LISP contributed to our current understanding of how such transcriptional regulators change gene and protein expression patterns to control metabolic homeostasis. A recent focus of the laboratory has been on NAD+ biology, as it turns out that NAD+ is not only acting as a metabolic cofactor but also as a powerful signalling molecule with pleiotropic metabolic effects.