MelTec GmbH & Co, KG, is a privately held company that harnesses proprietary topological proteomics technologies to enhance and facilitate the discovery and development of new drugs for a wide range of therapeutic areas.

The company’s suite of technologies can be applied to drug target and lead compound identification, selection and prioritisation, target validation, tox studies and patient population profiling. MelTec can identify exceptional biomarkers for preclinical and clinical research, and the company can provide insight into disease and treatment mechanisms through the elucidation of functional protein networks.

MelTec’s core technology, multi-epitope-ligand-kartographie (MELK), is a proteo-imaging, robotic technology that combines cell biology and biomathematical tools to visualise protein networks at the cellular and subcellular levels, without disrupting the cell’s integrity. MELK correlates these networks with biological function. MelTec can also determine the mode-of-action of lead compounds and currently marketed drugs, resulting in safer, more efficacious drugs.

Identification, localisation and characterisation

The major challenge for the drug development industry is to reduce the high attrition rates of drugs entering clinical trials. MelTec’s technology is designed to work early in the development chain, identifying and selecting the right target, while also identifying toxic side effects and characterising the functional specificity of candidate compounds.

Identification is accomplished by discerning the key elements of disease-related functional protein networks, providing valuable information for the target selection process. At the same time, specific combinatorial biomarkers are identified that aid decisions from lead selection to patient stratification, resulting in more successful clinical trials. MelTec has already identified novel, powerful biomarkers for toxic effects that can be further improved by including customer-specific marker needs. Furthermore, by monitoring the efficacy of drug candidates at the molecular level in clinical trials, MelTec can identify negative side effects, escape mechanisms and potential new indications for existing drugs.

Service programmes for drug discovery and development

MelTec offers services for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, based on an automated MELK technology platform, which significantly enhances the speed and efficiency of the drug discovery and development process. Customers and partners also have the opportunity to in-license the MELK technology for specific development programmes. MelTec is also interested in collaborative agreements that will further help to strengthen and facilitate the company’s internal drug discovery programmes.

MelTec’s topological proteomics technology adds value in:

  • Target identification, prioritisation and validation
  • Lead selection
  • Biomarker identification
  • Patient population profiling
  • Diagnostics

Internal drug development programmes

MelTec has taken a special interest in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS); a fatal, progressive neurodegenerative disease that involves nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. There is currently no treatment or cure for this disease.

MelTec’s efforts have already been rewarded by the identification of what would represent the first biomarker in ALS and the early development of a drug candidate. The target has been patented by MelTec and validated by independent studies at a leading US-based research institution.

Oncology

Cancer is a heterogeneous disease, and remains one of the most challenging medical needs facing the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries.

Applying MELK, the Company has identified and patented a target that organises and directs protein networks on the cell surface of Rhabdomyosarcoma cells, which constitute a fast-growing, highly malignant tumour, which accounts for over half of the soft tissue sarcomas in children. The integrity of these networks is necessary for the polarisation and migration of the tumour cells, which constitute the first step prior to metastasis.