Technology
Our Mission
Explore the New Continent of Drug Discovery
xFOREST Therapeutics aims to create a paradigm shift in drug discovery with its unique technological assets "FOREST technologies", setting RNA structures as drug discovery targets. "FOREST technology" is a platform that integrate massively parallel biochemical analysis systems of up to 1 million species of RNA structures and in silico analysis pipelines. These comprehensive analyses include various RNA structures, regardless of their origin: organ, species, or virus. As a result, the technologies have enabled the search for highly specific RNA-binders, empowering the rapid and efficient discovery of RNA-targeting drugs.
Topics
Targeting RNA with Small Molecules
In drug discovery, protein-targeting is currently the mainstream. However, in the process of translation from DNA to protein, the genetic information is reduced to 2% of the human genome, and only 1/40th of that is considered to be a druggable target.
In recent years, RNA-targeting drug discovery research has been attracting attention. In particular, we believe that targeting RNA with small molecules has a great deal of potential.
On the other hand, in the RNA-targeted drug discovery research using small-molecule compounds, which has been investigated so far, "Operation of a complex screening system to handle structured RNAs", "Establishment of analysis methods for big data regarding to interaction between RNAs and small molecules", and "Evaluation method for the binding specificity between target RNAs and hit compounds" are the issues that hinder the progress of the field.
xFOREST addresses these challenges with our state-of-the-art platform and contributes to innovation in drug discovery research.
Core Technologies
Expanding technology portfolio
At xFOREST, we have developed a number of highly proprietary RNA analysis techniques called "FOREST technologies".
With this technology platform, we can propose new drug discovery methods for each phase of the RNA-targeted drug discovery process.
In 2020, we published the results of our work on the FOREST, one of the FOREST Technologies, in Nature Communications.
(title: RNA structure-wide discovery of functional interactions with multiplexed RNA motif library)
Example: MatrixFOREST
Unprecedented massively parallel RNA structure analyses in silico, in vitro, in cellulo.
Tens of thousands of RNAs and tens of thousands of compounds from libraries can be analyzed in parallel with a single nucleotide resolution, enabling the selectivity of each compound to be evaluated and a database of these signals to be compiled.
The accumulated information is being integrated into our evolving database.
“RNA structure-targeting drug discovery” has progressed dramatically as the number of RNA targets expected to be effectively targeted by small or medium molecules has increased.
Some of the RNA-targeted drugs are expected to be effective in the treatment of serious hereditary diseases and are expected to be a new therapy for intractable diseases.
xFOREST Therapeutics has developed a versatile platform, FOREST (FOlded RNA Element profiling with STructure library) technologies, for the large-scale analysis of RNA-drug interactions. xFOREST developed in-house libraries of RNA structures composed of various RNA classes, such as pre-mRNA, viral RNA, and aptamers. This unique technology allows FOREST to comprehensively analyze the binding function of user-defined RNA structures. This makes it possible to rank the binding strength for biologically-relevant RNA structures and to rank the chemical reactivity of molecules.