Our Science

Our Science

Remapping the genomic landscape

At ProFound™ Therapeutics, we start by looking through the lens of the translatome.

The Translatome

What if more of the human genome were translated into proteins?

DNA sequences found in the human genome are converted into RNA transcripts, which are then translated into functional proteins. The decades-long understanding in biology is that a mere 2% of the 3 billion base pairs that make up human genomic DNA represent protein-coding sequences. Yet, in recent years, it has been established that a staggering 80% of the DNA is actually transcribed into RNA.

So, we asked, ‘What if more RNAs were being translated into proteins?’ Tackling this question gave us insights into the translatome, the full compendium of RNA sequences that are being translated into proteins, which we believe holds the secrets to a multitude of potential therapeutic proteins and drug targets.

What We Do

DISCOVERING NOVEL PROTEINS AND ILLUMINATING THEIR BIOLOGY TO GENERATE FIRST-IN-CLASS MEDICINES

Our proprietary ProFoundryTM Platform is designed to rapidly mine for novel drugs and drug targets hidden within the expanded proteome – and to do so at a scale enabled by advanced computational and predictive machine learning models, reducing the time for target identification and validation by years.

Discover: We have industrialized the use of RiboSeq at scale to identify all RNAs actively being translated into proteins from any region of the genome, including regions not previously known to encode mRNA and proteins.

Implicate: Through insights from over 1 trillion data points, ProFound’s ever-expanding database has cataloged tens of thousands of novel proteins, including their functionality, connectivity, and roles in health and disease. The ProFoundry Atlas tool reflects known information across dimensions - from the genome, epigenome, transcriptome, proteome, and translatome. Proprietary AI/ML algorithms predict protein function and therapeutic relevance with high accuracy, providing an instantaneous in silico assessment of the therapeutic relevance of proteins discovered.

Validate: Leveraging a suite of high and medium-throughput experimental assays that rapidly define a protein's biological functions, ProFound is enabled to select the most promising proteins for progression as therapeutic drugs or drug targets.

What we found

The new protein factors and targets we’ve revealed using the ProFoundry™ Platform span a diversity of therapeutically impactful functional classes, including:

  • Novel genetic drivers of disease
  • Immune modulators
  • Circulating metabolic factors
  • Oncology targets
  • …and more