Challenges
- Poor drug delivery across the blood-brain barrier (BBB)
- High failure rates in clinical trials for brain diseases
- Need for precision delivery of therapeutics to the brain
Solutions
- Utilization of Pluto's multi-omics platform for target discovery
- Integration of -omics data and curated literature evidence
- Collaboration with Wyss scientists for expert insight
Impact
- Efficient identification and prioritization of transport targets
- Advancement in developing antibody-based brain transport shuttles
- Potential for revolutionizing treatments for brain diseases
The Challenge
Delivery of drugs to the brain continues to present a great challenge in the development of more effective treatments for brain diseases. Poor brain delivery is one major factor in the frequent failures in clinical trials of drugs for Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, brain cancers, and other brain diseases. Most drugs cannot efficiently cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) to reach their optimal therapeutic concentration in the brain. The Wyss Institute at Harvard University established its Brain Targeting Program to help address this critical unmet need.
The Solution
The Wyss Brain Targeting Program announced it will use Pluto’s target discovery software platform to analyze and visualize -omics data, curate evidence from various published literature sources, and integrate these findings with expert insight from Wyss Institute scientists to efficiently identify and prioritize genes and proteins with transport capacity that can significantly increase drug transport into the brain.
The Results
This collaboration brings together Pluto's cutting-edge software platform for drug discovery and the Wyss Brain Targeting Program's unique pre-competitive industry-sponsored research program to discover and engineer antibody-based brain transport shuttles. Pluto launched from the Wyss Institute in 2021 to empower researchers around the globe.
"We're delighted to support the Wyss Brain Targeting Program, whose pioneering approach to industry-academic partnerships and world-class team of experts is uniquely positioned to make ground-breaking advances in next-generation approaches for the treatment of brain disease. With this collaboration, we are proud that Pluto’s drug discovery software will be supporting the Brain Targeting Program team’s vision to synthesize a vast amount of data and knowledge to engineer shuttles that have the potential for life-changing impact in the field."
- Rani Powers, PhD, Founder & CEO of Pluto Bio
About Wyss Institute Brain Targeting Program
The Wyss Brain Targeting Program is advancing brain delivery approaches that enable more safe and effective brain-targeted therapeutics. The team actively collaborates with companies and academics to tailor their brain shuttles for drug delivery of specific payloads and diseases. Read more about the Brain Targeting Program at: Wyss Institute Brain Targeting Program
About Pluto Bio
Pluto Bio is the modern, multi-omics drug discovery platform built for driving scientific initiatives and outcomes. Pluto empowers scientific teams to analyze experimental data, build curated knowledgebases from published literature and proprietary company research, and integrate insights into actionable dashboards, reports, and presentations that enable faster, higher-quality decision-making. Learn more about Pluto at: Pluto Bio