A look back at 2022

January 31st, 2023 / Blog

With DUB inhibitors making progress in the clinic and DUBTACs attracting new funding, last year brought exciting advances to the DUB drug discovery space, and to Ubiquigent!



Looking back at 2022, here are some of our Company highlights…

  • The launch of our new website and logo reflecting our singular focus on the DUB enzymes, and their modulation to address unmet medical needs.
  • We welcomed new members to our team, with Hozefa Amijee joining as Head of Business Development, and Professor’s Helen Walden and John Davis joining our Scientific Advisory Board of experts.
  • Our CSO, Dr Sheelagh Frame, was appointed to the Board of Directors.
  • We secured an exclusive license for UbiSite®, an antibody-based technology developed by the University of Southern Denmark that facilitates deeper insights into the ubiquitome. Keep a look out for the launch of our fully supported ubiquitomics service in the first half of the year!
  • Introducing DUBprofiler™ v8, compounds can now be screened at any combination of 48 DUBs on the panel. Using DUBprofiler, we screened 1000s of compounds for more pharma, biotech, and academic institutions than ever before.
  • Using DUBprofiler-Cell, DUBprofiler-Tissue and PROTEOMEprofiler, we completed multiple studies for top 20 pharma to identify and validate DUB targets, to determine target engagement and selectivity of DUB targeting compounds and to start building our DUB tissue atlas.
  • We continued to advance our in-house drug discovery programmes including the initiation of our first DUBTAC programme.
  • Expert insights on DUBs were published in European Biopharmaceutical Review and GEN.
  • We met with drug discovery partners, old and new, at seven conferences.

…and the top industry highlights…

  • Mission Therapeutics received regulatory approval to initiate clinical trials for their lead USP30 inhibitor in kidney disease and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
  • Presented at the 2022 Society for Neuroscience (SfN) conference, new data from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) validates USP30 inhibition as a viable treatment modality for Parkinson’s disease.
  • Funding for companies harnessing DUBs to stabilise proteins has surged, with Vicinitas Therapeutics and Entact Bio closing Series A funding rounds at $65 and $81 million, respectively, joining Stablix in this space.

“2022 was a great year for Ubiquigent, strengthening our position to enable innovative breakthroughs in DUB-focused drug discovery and development!

A huge thank you to all our clients, partners and team.

Starting this year at JPM Week to meet with potential investors, partners, and collaborators, we have really hit the ground running. The co-founder of Mission Therapeutics, Xavier Jacq, has joined our SAB, and we are working with Professor Helen Walden to support a Master’s student on a translational structural biology project for USP30. And taking a wider look at the industry, the DUB drug discovery landscape is already seeing innovative breakthroughs, with Mission successfully completing Phase I for its USP30 inhibitor.

We look forward to introducing more exciting developments to our Platform and portfolio of novel DUB modulators and associated drug discovery programmes in 2023!” Jason Mundin, CEO