Fibroblast joke:
Q: When is a fibroblast not a fibroblast?
A: When it's at greater than passage 3.
Not very funny. Nor is the fact that many academic, biotech and pharma labs use >P3 zombie cells
Please stop
Just stop
Attached blot (HSCs) says it all
Six years:
2011 Write grant
2012 Grant awarded
2013 First patient recruited
2014 IL11 prioritised as pro-fibrotic protein
2015 In vitro work, file patent
2016 In vivo work, antibody development, 3 more patents
2017 Spin out company, publish results
nature.com/articles/natur…
I’ll raise you: How about a clinical trial?
We have engineered a super long acting and potent anti-IL11 for human ageing trials at vvb.bio.
Faster to humans, not another 5 years in mice
Needs investment, build out, approvable endpoints and not easy ++. But..
💰 Anyone willing to finance a study combining the latest IL11 inhibition intervention — that was just shown to extend lifespan in mice by 25% — with other interventions with the goal of finding synergistic combinations?
From our rebuttal:
"we think adding more data would over-complicate the study that already comprises six multi-panelled main figures and 15 multi-panelled supplemental figures, representing approximately 125 display items. We seek the Reviewer's understanding on this..."
😬
Enleofen Bio
Founded 2017
No VC
No CEO/CSO/Canything
1 amazing employee
2 academic founders
Translation at max speed
Aim: publication-to-trial in <5yrs
Asset acquisition in 2019
Founder Led Outsourced Biotech - it’s the future.
💥
Is your favourite gene a drug target?
1 GnomAD - LOF + damaging nsSNP. Tolerant of variation? = safety
2 UKBB PheWas - use deleterious variants from (1). Disease in top hits? OR protective? = validation
3 Opentargets - finalise analysis
Have cup of tea
@ewanbirney@dgmacarthur
1999, my first scientific paper, 4 western blots, no supplement
2021, our latest paper, over 180 western blots, huge supplement and the reviewer asked for more
Science gone mad
Amazing study by the team, again
IL11 strongly activates mTOR
😉
How does TGFB stimulate collagen and SMA translation in fibroblasts?
Its taken 5 years, but we finally got there:
IL11/ERK/mTOR/P70S6K is the winner
For believers in JAK/STAT, its not good news
And we found a new MOA for Nintedanib along the way…
👍
We did epigenetic clock in the mice. Large effect (++). Reviewer 1 made us take it out (despite our protests - see rebuttal at Nature website). Data is shown in our online talks and on BioRxiv (I think). For sure a biomarker of interest for human trials…
LKB1 (STK11), a master metabolic kinase, is inhibited by IL11.
The most direct example of immunometabolism to date @ImmunoMet?
This links ERK (trametinib) to AMPK (metformin) and mTOR (rapamycin) - in one pathway @realNathanCheng
Once again, the BHF front and centre in supporting my research - ever since my PhD. Extremely grateful. Much work to do in DCM and we have a GREAT team of nurses, doctors and scientists to deliver this project - working in partnership with our patients.
Today the BHF is announcing a £2million study into dilated cardiomyopathy, to find new ways of diagnosing and treating people living with the condition: bit.ly/2pRl6DB