Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Nuevolution and Leading Research University Form Scientific Collaboration

Nuevolution A/S has entered into a scientific collaboration with Duke University, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Lexicon Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for the investigation of the biological mechanism of action of a specified GPCR drug target. The principal investigator for Duke University and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute is Robert J. Lefkowitz, a Duke Faculty member and HHMI employee and Nobel Laureate in Chemistry 2012.

During the scientific collaboration, Nuevolution will provide access to its proprietary Chemetics technology for small molecule drug discovery and both Nuevolution and Lexicon will provide access to selected chemical libraries created using the Chemetics technology. Within the framework of the collaboration, hundreds of millions of diverse small molecules will be screened in the endeavor to discover compounds with certain novel and unique properties against the GPCR drug target.

“We are excited to enter into this scientific collaboration with the renowned and world-leading scientific group of Dr. Lefkowitz and our dedicated partner Lexicon Pharmaceuticals,” said Thomas Franch, Chief Scientific Officer of Nuevolution A/S. “If successful, this highly challenging project may cast new and very important light on the mechanism of action of GPCRs.”

“We have used the Chemetics technology successfully to identify novel chemotypes for our internal programs and are enthusiastic about exploring the utility of our DNA-tagged libraries of diverse chemical compounds in the screening of GPCRs. We look forward to working with Nuevolution and Dr. Lefkowitz’s team at Duke University on this project,” said Brian P. Zambrowicz, PhD, executive vice president and chief scientific officer of Lexicon.