Sinopia Biosciences Selects Lead Clinical Candidate, Secures Funding to Advance into the Clinic for Parkinson’s Disease

Sinopia Biosciences, Inc., a biotechnology company      advancing novel therapeutics identified using its proprietary computational drug discovery platform, announced today that it has selected SB-0110 after extensive preclinical studies as its lead clinical candidate for Parkinson’s disease and levodopa-induced dyskinesia. By successfully meeting this milestone, Sinopia has triggered Phase II funding of its Fast Track Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant for a cumulative funding of $3.3M awarded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Further, Sinopia has been selected to receive $2.0M in funding from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) to advance SB-0110 into Phase 1 clinical trials.

“We are excited to select our lead clinical candidate, SB-0110, and to secure funding from two premier research institutions that are committed to advancing novel therapeutics for Parkinson’s disease,” said Iman Famili, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Sinopia Biosciences. “Parkinson’s disease remains a disease area of high unmet clinical need, as current treatments are not optimal and can lead to long-term liabilities with chronic use.”

SB-0110 is a novel, proprietary small molecule with a unique mechanism of action that was identified using Sinopia’s LEADS™ platform, a next-generation drug discovery engine driven by machine learning and multi-omics network analysis to discover and prioritize targets and compounds. SB-0110 was selected from a series of compounds developed by Sinopia. In multiple preclinical rodent and non-human primate studies, Sinopia’s compounds have demonstrated a unique and potentially transformative pharmacology for treating both the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and also the complications of levodopa, (i.e., levodopa-induced dyskinesia). Further, Sinopia’s compounds have demonstrated potential for cognitive enhancing effects in non-human primate models of Parkinson’s disease, an area of high unmet need with no approved treatments.

“SB-0110 is highly differentiated from current treatments and those that are currently in clinical development. We are excited to begin IND-enabling studies and are committed to advance the program to clinical studies,” said Aarash Bordbar, Ph.D., Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Sinopia Biosciences.

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders And Stroke of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number 4R44NS124398-02. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

About Sinopia Biosciences
Sinopia Biosciences, Inc. is a biotechnology company advancing novel therapeutics identified using its proprietary computational drug discovery platform. Sinopia’s discovery platform combines high-throughput omics data, machine learning, and network biology. Sinopia is headquartered at JLABS San Diego. For more information, please visit www.sinopiabio.com/.

Company Contact:
Iman Famili, Ph.D.
info@sinopiabio.com

Sinopia Awarded Grant from National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research for Oral Mucositis

Sinopia Biosciences, Inc., a biotechnology company advancing novel therapeutics identified using its proprietary computational drug discovery platform, has been awarded a grant from the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR), a branch of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, to fund the continued evaluation of therapeutic candidates to treat oral mucositis.

Mucositis is a debilitating side effect of chemotherapy and radiotherapy that is characterized by inflammation and ulceration in mucosal tissue. Typically presented in cancer clinical care, mucositis occurs in about 40% of the patients treated with chemotherapy and increases to as high as 90% for head and neck cancer patients treated with both chemo- and radiotherapy.

“By leveraging our computational drug discovery platform, we were able to uncover novel therapeutic targets for mucositis for which there are no FDA approved treatments available, specifically for patients with solid tumors,” said Iman Famili, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Sinopia Biosciences. “When mucositis presents itself in cancer clinical care, there can be a delay in antineoplastic treatment for high-grade mucositis management that can lead to worse overall prognosis and significantly higher healthcare costs. We are pleased to receive funding from the NIDCR to progress our assessment of a promising therapeutic for mucositis into the clinic.”

To pinpoint promising therapeutic targets for mucositis, Sinopia harnessed the power of its LEarn And DiScover (LEADS™) platform, a next-generation drug discovery engine driven by machine learning and multi-omics network analysis, to gain insight into the pathophysiology of mucositis and to identify biomolecular signatures that were related to the development of severe mucositis and healing processes.

“We are encouraged by our in vivo data indicating the potential for a new therapeutic class of drugs for treating mucositis,” said Aarash Bordbar, Ph.D., Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Sinopia Biosciences. “In addition to supporting our development effort, these data further validate the utility of Sinopia’s LEADS™ platform, which has been instrumental in the expansion of our preclinical pipeline.”

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R43DE031464. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

About Sinopia Biosciences
Sinopia Biosciences, Inc. is a biotechnology company advancing novel therapeutics identified using its proprietary computational drug discovery platform. Sinopia’s discovery platform combines high-throughput omics data, machine learning, and network biology. Sinopia is headquartered at JLABS San Diego. For more information, please visit www.sinopiabio.com/.

Company Contact:
Iman Famili, Ph.D.
info@sinopiabio.com

Sinopia Biosciences Awarded NIH Grant to Support Development of Parkinson’s Disease Pipeline

SAN DIEGO, September 27, 2021 – Sinopia Biosciences, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company advancing novel therapeutics identified using its proprietary computational drug discovery platform, has been awarded a $3.3 million Fast-Track SBIR grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), as part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to fund investigational new drug (IND)-enabling studies for Sinopia’s small molecule candidate for Parkinson’s disease (PD). 

 

“We are pleased to receive funding from the NIH to support the advancement of our Parkinson’s disease program towards the clinic,” said Iman Famili, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Sinopia Biosciences. “Parkinson’s disease affects nearly 7 million people worldwide and is the fastest growing neurological disorder in the world, with the number of patients expected to double by 2040. It’s a disease that imposes heavy burdens on patients and caregivers, particularly because current treatments are not optimal and have serious long-term liabilities with chronic use that must be addressed.” 

 

The proprietary small molecule has a novel mechanism of action and was identified using Sinopia’s LEarn And DiScover (LEADS) platform, a next-generation drug discovery engine driven by machine learning and multi-omics network analysis to pinpoint and prioritize targets and compounds to move into development. In multiple preclinical rodent and non-human primate studies, Sinopia’s drug candidate demonstrated a unique and potentially transformative pharmacology for treating both the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and also the complications of levodopa, (i.e., levodopa-induced dyskinesia).

 

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute Of Neurological Disorders And Stroke of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number R44NS124398. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

 

About Sinopia Biosciences 

Sinopia Biosciences, Inc. is a clinical-stage biotechnology company advancing novel therapeutics identified using its proprietary computational drug discovery platform. Sinopia’s discovery platform combines high-throughput omics data, machine learning, and network biology. Sinopia is headquartered at JLABS San Diego. 

 

Media Contact: 
Cammy Duong
Westwicke, an ICR company
(203) 682-8380
cammy.duong@westwicke.com

Sinopia Biosciences Awarded Grant from National Institute of General Medical Sciences for Metabolomics-Based High-Throughput Screening

SAN DIEGO, June 16, 2021 – Sinopia Biosciences, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company advancing novel therapeutics derived from its proprietary computational drug discovery platform, today announced that it has been awarded a grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), as part of the National Institutes of Health, to further develop and validate their proprietary metabolomics-based high-throughput screening (HTS) platform with an initial focus on rare diseases. To date, Sinopia has received nearly $8.0 million in grants from the National Institutes of Health and a $450,000 grant from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF).

 

“For the past two decades, phenotypic-based drug discovery, which typically measures a few parameters, has been the most successful approach for discovering therapeutics. Fast forward to today, we can measure hundreds to hundreds of thousands of biomolecular and cellular changes at once cost-effectively and have the ability to successfully generate unbiased hypotheses to discover novel medicines,” said Aarash Bordbar, Ph.D., co-founder and chief technology officer of Sinopia Biosciences. “At Sinopia, we’re looking to advance these approaches by comprehensively measuring downstream layers, such as metabolites, that may provide a more accurate representation of how best to treat a variety of diseases.”

 

The $2.2 million grant will support the screening and validation of both chemical and genetic perturbations across multiple cell lines with an initial focus on 50 genetically defined rare diseases – of which there are an estimated 7,000 in the world. In partnership with Omix Technologies, a leader in mass spectrometry-based data generation, Sinopia will use metabolomics data to augment its multi-omics drug discovery engine LEADS (LEarn And DiScover) to develop hypotheses for treating select rare diseases and subsequently validating identified compounds.

 

“The team at Sinopia has meticulously identified an approach that could change how the industry discovers drug targets for a variety of diseases and we’re proud to be part of it,” said Travis Nemkov, Ph.D., co-founder and chief operating officer at Omix Technologies. “By marrying our expertise in mass spectrometry and our high-throughput metabolomics platform with Sinopia’s computational omics analysis, we are capitalizing on the advantages of data-driven drug discovery.”  

 

“Given the large number of rare diseases, it is difficult to develop drugs using traditional target-based discovery approaches in a time and capital efficient manner,” said Iman Famili, Ph.D., CEO and president of Sinopia Biosciences. “This grant will enable us to dedicate our efforts to building out a metabolomics-based high-throughput screening platform that could help build predictive models for a variety of rare diseases while simultaneously reducing the timelines and cost for discovering novel medicines.”

 

About Sinopia Biosciences

Sinopia Biosciences, Inc. is a clinical-stage biotechnology company advancing novel therapeutics derived from its proprietary computational drug discovery platform. Sinopia’s proprietary computational platform combines high-throughput omics data, machine learning, and network biology. Sinopia is headquartered at JLABS San Diego.

 

Media Contact:

Cammy Duong
Westwicke, an ICR company
(203) 682-8380
cammy.duong@westwicke.com

Sinopia Biosciences Receives Grant from The Michael J. Fox Foundation to Advance Novel Treatment for Parkinson’s Disease

Sinopia Biosciences, Inc., a computational drug discovery company, received a Therapeutic Pipeline Program research grant from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) to support advancement of its patent-protected small molecule (SB-0107) for motor and non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. SB-0107 is Sinopia’s lead therapeutic candidate identified through the company’s proprietary machine learning and network biology platform. The grant will advance research of SB-0107 with levodopa towards clinical trials.

Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurological condition affecting about 7 million people worldwide. Levodopa remains the gold-standard treatment for Parkinson’s disease patients but has long-term liabilities including dyskinesia and loss of efficacy (motor fluctuations). There is a strong unmet need for novel therapies that avoid or delay these adverse effects.

Evaluating a computationally identified candidate in advanced preclinical models is a strong validation of the predictive capabilities of Sinopia’s computational platform. SB-0107 in preclinical models shows very robust anti-Parkinsonian activity without causing or exacerbating levodopa induced-dyskinesia. These results, coupled with its unique mechanism of action, make SB-0107 a promising clinical candidate to change how Parkinson’s disease is treated at all stages of disease.

About Sinopia Biosciences

Sinopia Biosciences, Inc. is a San Diego based computational drug discovery company located at JLABS San Diego that is enabling safer therapeutics. Sinopia’s proprietary computational platform combines high-throughput omics data, machine learning, and network biology to identify therapeutic cnadiates that avoid or treat side effects of key life changing drug classes. Sinopia’s lead program is in Parkinson’s disease.

Sinopia Biosciences Joins NVIDIA Inception Program

Sinopia Biosciences has joined the NVIDIA Inception program, which is designed to nurture startups revolutionizing industries with advancements in AI and data sciences. Sinopia Biosciences is a computational biology company that deploys machine learning, systems biology, and bioinformatics for drug discovery. Sinopia deploys its proprietary algorithms to understand pharmacology at an unprecedented level of biochemical detail to aid in improving the standard of care in multiple disease areas.

The NVIDIA Inception program enables Sinopia to better expand its extensive expertise in omics data and network biology into deep learning and artificial intelligence to continue improving its internal algorithms for drug discovery.

NVIDIA’s Inception program is a virtual accelerator program that helps startups during critical stages of product development, prototyping and deployment. Every Inception member gets a custom set of ongoing benefits, from hardware grants and marketing support to training with deep learning experts.

Sinopia Biosciences Awarded Phase II SBIR to Focus on Drug Side Effects

Sinopia Biosciences was awarded a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to further support research and commercialization of Sinopia’s technology in predicting, preventing, and treating adverse drug reactions, more commonly known as drug side effects. The grant is entitled “Developing a systems biology platform for predicting, preventing, and treating drug side effects“. The award for approximately $1.5 million will go to further expanding Sinopia’s underlying technology to study the efficacy and safety of therapeutics at a comprehensive biomolecular level. With the successes in the Phase I portion of this SBIR and the development of a program for Parkinson’s Disease, this grant will expand Sinopia’s research into other therapeutic areas including psychiatry and oncology.

Sinopia Biosciences and Omix Technologies Awarded NIGMS Phase I SBIR to Develop Next-Gen Drug Discovery Platform

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences has awarded Sinopia Biosciences (San Diego, CA) and Omix Technologies (Denver, CO) a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant. The grant entitled "Development of a metabolomics and machine learning based high-throughput screening platform for data-driven drug discovery” combines Sinopia’s unique and long history of expertise in computational analysis of metabolomics data with Omix’s exceptional ability to generate metabolomics data with unprecedented throughput, accuracy, and precision. This combination will allow for studying drug-like compounds’ effects on cellular systems at a deeper level of biochemical detail than before, with applications in drug discovery, drug repurposing, and drug safety.

Sinopia Biosciences Awarded Second NHLBI Phase II SBIR

Sinopia Biosciences received a second Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support research and commercialization of transfusion products. Titled "Improving the safety and efficacy of platelet transfusion through systems biology", the award for approximately $1.5 million will support the deployment of Sinopia's platform for platelet transfusion products. In Phase I, Sinopia’s systems biology platform discovered biochemical alterations in platelet metabolism over time through comprehensive metabolite profiling and computational analyses. This Phase II grant focuses on testing novel additives to combat the metabolic changes in order to better preserve cells for transfusion and potentially extend the shelf life of platelet products. The multi-center project will strengthen existing key collaborations with the San Diego Blood Bank and blood metabolomics experts at Omix Technologies.

Sinopia Biosciences Awarded NIGMS Phase I SBIR

Sinopia Biosciences, a computational biology company in San Diego, received a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS). Entitled "Developing a systems biology platform for predicting drug toxicity and safety", the award will allow Sinopia to expand its therapeutic safety platform to a large number of pharmaceuticals and types of drug side effects.

Multi-site investigation validates metabolic biomarkers for assessing RBC unit age

Research at Sinopia Biosciences analyzing metabolomics data previously revealed a three state, non-linear decay of red blood cells during storage. A new study published in the prestigious hematology journal, Blood, shows that with the measurement of just eight metabolites, the RBC storage age can be accurately predicted. Unlike previous studies, the investigation involved multiple sites, as well as different additive solutions, processing methods, and analytical setups for metabolite measurement. The success of the study is an independent confirmation of two separate laboratories and further validates the three state decay of red blood cells during blood bank storage. The work was completed by researchers from EURAC Research in Italy, the University of Colorado Denver, the University of Iceland, the Blood Bank at Landspitali-University Hospital, and Sinopia Biosciences.

Early View Publication

Sinopia Biosciences Awarded $1.5 million NHLBI Phase II SBIR

Sinopia Biosciences received a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Titled "Improving red blood cell transfusion through systems biology", the award for approximately $1.5 million will support the experimental deployment of Sinopia's platform for transfusion medicine. In Phase I, Sinopia’s systems biology platform discovered a non-linear decay process for red blood cell storage and how the cell’s metabolism changes over time. The detected changes were shown to have potential clinical relevance. This Phase II grant focuses on testing novel additives to combat the metabolic changes in order to better preserve red blood cells for transfusion. The multi-center project will involve key collaborations with the San Diego Blood Bank and blood metabolomics experts at Omix Technologies.

Sinopia researchers show promise of RBC metabolic state as diagnostic for cell quality

Red blood cell (RBC) transfusion is an integral part of health care. Many scientific studies have shown that biochemical and physiological changes occur during longer storage periods of RBCs. In the past decade, there has been fervent interest for whether or not "old" RBCs have a clinical impact on patient outcomes. Several observational and randomized clinical trials have been completed with mixed results. 

Throughout this process and debate, there has been no quantitative metric for what constitutes "old" and "fresh" RBCs. In an Early View in the journal Transfusion, Sinopia Biosciences researchers, collaborating with scientists and transfusion clinicians from the University of Iceland, University of Copenhagen, Technical University of Denmark, Reykjavik University, and Landspitali Hospital, define such a metric. This metric allows for future clinical studies to be better standardized and for future scientific studies to have clear quantitative outcomes to measure up to.

Specifically, RBCs were profiled using comprehensive metabolomics over the course of storage and modeling techniques were used to determine metabolic pathway activities. The metabolic activity was found to correlate with clinical outcomes and markers linked with endothelial damage. Surprisingly, traditional metrics of RBC storage quality, including those currently used for quality control and regulatory processes, were not as accurate as the discovered metabolic metric.

This work was supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and European Research Council.

Full publication

Sinopia scientists construct personalized models for determining personalized side effects

While at UC San Diego, Sinopia scientists and colleagues constructed personalized models to determine personalized side effects based on patients' blood samples. The study was basd on genomic and metabolomics data obtained from blood samples of 24 individuals. Researchers used these data to build a personalized, predictive model for each individual. Researchers then used these predictive models to understand why some individuals experienced side effects to ribavirin. The work was published in Cell Systems on October 28, 2015. 

See also, UC San Diego press release and GEN News Highlight

Sinopia Biosciences Awarded NHLBI Phase I SBIR

Sinopia Biosciences, a small biotechnology company in San Diego, received a second Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The award for approximately $220,000 will support the expansion and further development of Sinopia's bioinformatics and systems biology platform for transfusion medicine. This particular grant focuses on extending work on the platform for studying the metabolic consequences of the platelet storage legion.

Sinopia Biosciences to Present at AABB 2014

Sinopia Biosciences will be attending and presenting two talks at the AABB (American Association of Blood Banks) Annual Meeting 2014. The meeting will be held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on October 25-28, 2014.

Dr. Bernhard Palsson, Ph.D. will be presenting a talk during the "Hot Topic" session titled "O' Mice and Men - Genetic Insights into RBC Metabolomics and a Systems Analysis Approach" on October 25th.

Dr. Aarash Bordbar, Ph.D. will be presenting an oral abstract titled: "Systems biology analysis of stored red blood cells in SAGM reveals three distinct metabolic states" on October 28th.

Sinopia Biosciences Awarded NHLBI Phase I SBIR

Sinopia Biosciences (CHOmics Inc.), a small biotechnology company in San Diego, received a Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The award for approximately $150,000 will support the development of bioinformatic methods and systems biology models of human erythrocytes to study the metabolic consequences of the red blood cell (RBC) storage lesion accumulated during RBC storage.