Dassault Systèmes & CDR-Life collaborate to accelerate scientific innovation for cancer therapies

New Delhi: Dassault Systèmes has announced it collaborated with CDR-Life, a Swiss biotherapeutics company, to accelerate CDR-Life’s development of next-generation highly tumor-selective immunotherapies using CDR-Life’s proprietary M-gager^® platform.

Scientists from Dassault Systèmes’ Contract Research team worked closely with scientists from CDR-Life to perform virtual “what if” experiments on antibody-based biologics called T-cell engagers, using Dassault Systèmes’ BIOVIA software and CDR-Life’s experimental data.

Dassault Systèmes’ Contract Research team leveraged its expertise in science and technology to model different molecules virtually, and identify ones that will have desirable properties such as stability, without impacting other molecular function.  Following a holistic and systematic analysis of the results, the team provided the variants that were anticipated to have a high probability of success when tested in the lab by CDR-Life.

“Our collaboration with Dassault Systèmes’ Contract Research team accelerated our research and development efforts based on our proprietary antibody-based MHC-targeting T-cell engager technology.  By working together, we can use the insights gathered virtually for our protein engineering platform and pave the way toward more efficient and effective oncology treatments,” said Fabian Scheifele, Discovery Leader, CDR-Life.

Next generation immunotherapies are a key step in the successful treatment of cancer, as they empower the immune system to eradicate malignant cells with unparalleled specificity.  Improving the stability of antibody-based T-cell engagers can result in high tumor cell killing potency, longer duration of effect, and lower risk of immune-related adverse effects.

“The complexity of unmet medical needs affects the patient experience and health outcomes.  Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies of all sizes seek to accelerate the development of therapies that will help people live healthier lives,” said Claire Biot, Vice President, Life Sciences & Healthcare Industry, Dassault Systèmes.  “Our outcome-based Contract Research service is a game-changer in how we work with our customers on projects.  CDR-Life was able to focus its time and energy on prioritized experiments with the most promising candidates.  Not only did this narrow down the number of experiments its scientists needed to perform in their lab, it provided new insights that helped them reach their end-goals faster.”

As a science-based company, Dassault Systèmes, through its Contract Research team, provides solutions to business-critical scientific challenges that its existing and new customers in all industries face.  During the pandemic, for example, these services delivered actionable results and insights for projects to model, simulate and evaluate virus propagation risks in hospitals, offices and public spaces.