Reflexion Pharmaceuticals

Use tab to navigate through the menu items. AN ENTIRELY NEW CLASS OF THERAPEUTICS: SYNTHETIC D-PROTEINS Reflexion Pharmaceuticals has developed a novel platform utilizing the tools of synthetic biology to discover, develop and deliver an exciting new class of drug products: proteins composed entirely of D-amino acids. Synthetic D-proteins retain the benefits of antibodies while overcoming many of their limitations including reduced visibility, reduced size, improved stability and unique functionality. We believe our platform has enormous potential as synthetic D-proteins can be made to over 80% of the proteins currently targeted by antibody drugs, as well as additional targets. Reflexion has developed a platform utilizing the tools of synthetic chemical biology to discover, develop and deliver an entirely new class of therapeutics: novel synthetic D-proteins. These synthetic D-proteins are expected to exhibit many of the benefits of monoclonal antibodies while overcoming many of their limitations, including reduced biological visibility, reduced size, improved stability and unique functionality. The chemical synthesis of proteins was pioneered by our co-founder Dr. Stephen Kent. In a landmark paper, Dr. Kent showed that a chemically made protease comprised entirely of D-amino acids recognized and broke down its D-amino acid target peptide. Importantly, D-proteins are not broken down by naturally evolved proteases and are therefore biologically invisible, suggesting that a D-amino acid world (a parallel molecular universe) can be created to be less visible to human proteases and the human immune system. Reflexion believes it has opened a window between these mirror image worlds and can now discover synthetic D-proteins that can interact with drug targets in the L-world to create an entirely new class of therapeutics. Our novel platform integrates advanced chemical protein synthesis methods with in vitro and in silico protein engineering technologies to explore vast libraries of potential D-proteins. Using ...