An Interview with Stephanie Planque of Covalent Bioscience
Covalent Bioscience develops catalytic antibodies, a way to bind and neutralize target molecules in the body without consuming the antibody molecule itself. A given dose of catalytic antibody can thus remove many times more target molecules than is the case for standard monoclonal antibodies. This offers the potential for highly efficient removal of age-related amyloids present outside cells, perhaps the most interesting of the many possible use cases, such as those related to suppression of specific signal molecules. Like most biotech companies, the backstory behind the science emphasizes the point that progression of any given technology from academia to industry is slow indeed.
Covalent Bioscience was incorporated in 2010 by Dr Sudhir Paul and Dr Richard Massey based on catalytic antibody technology and several exciting potential products for unmet medical needs. The technology and potential products were developed in Dr. Sudhir Paul's group at the University of Texas (UT). Dr Richard Massey and Dr Sudhir Paul have worked together on the field of catalytic antibody (or catabody) when Dr Massey was in Igen in the late 80s. I have worked with Dr. Paul since 1999 and am one of the co-founders of Covalent Bioscience. We, the founders of Covalent Bioscience, share the same conviction that our platform technology holds the potential to generate superior immunotherapeutic drugs and vaccines.
Today, Covalent Bioscience has grown to a preclinical stage company holding significant assets. Our broad technology platform can be applied to generate novel lead products for unmet needs across multiple areas of medicine. We have three promising lead products for diseases that proved very difficult to treat and prevent by conventional means. Two of them are catabodies for treating age-associated diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and transthyretin amyloidosis. The products are expected to remove toxic aggregates that cause diseases in a more efficient and safe manner than conventional antibodies.
In 2018, Dr Paul and I moved full time to Covalent Bioscience. Our lab is located at the skirt of the Houston Medical Center, biggest medical center in the world. In 2020, Covalent Bioscience received from The University of Texas the commercial rights to all inventions and research materials/tools Paul's team generated there. With our current funding, we are generating new catabodies and working in collaboration with a pharma company to advance one of our lead products closer to human trials.
Link: https://medium.com/@arielf/interview-with-stephanie-planque-from-covalent-bioscience-9a2b49e74f49