Page 38 - 03-May-2024

On Target In a haystack of billions of molecules, 48Hour Discovery finds
cancer-fighting needles BY CAROLINE BARLOTT
A dam Brown walks into a room that looks like your typical chemistry lab.
It’s one of several that are part of 48Hour Discovery, a spin-off company of the University of Alberta. There are warnings,
as expected in a place that houses many complex chemicals. But these chemicals have the potential to aid in the discovery of countless new drugs.
There are several test tubes lined up against one wall. Brown picks one up and holds what in decades past would have required rows upon rows of vials in a giant facility.
“Inside here there are about a billion molecule drug leads,” Brown, the vice president of Business Develop- ment for 48Hour Discovery, explains. “Say if you have cancer, you have a tumour somewhere and...those cancer cells, on the outside of them, are expressing a certain type of protein. And you take that protein and you dip it in our proprietary vial and see what sticks to it. It’s like going fishing.”
It’s a bit more complicated than fishing, he admits with a laugh. But these not-so-simple fishing trips have drawn the attention of world-renowned companies, which hire 48Hour Discovery to find the molecules that become the next generation of diagnostics and therapeutics for a variety of diseases and indications. And the company also creates its own internal drugs.
Before Brown joined the team full time, he was consulting with the company to get it ready for the TNT Investment Summit in late 2022. The summit provides capital to early-stage tech start-ups.
“There was stiff competition and I thought: There’s no way we’re going to win it. And then you win it, and
48Hour Discovery received a $100,000 grant from the Alberta Cancer Foundation’s Breakthrough Fund
it’s just like...oh wow, it’s really exciting. Different, but similar to winning a Juno,” says Brown, a Top 40 Under 40 alumnus. He’s speaking from experience as a former member of Striker, which won a Juno for Heavy Metal Album of the Year in 2020.
Securing TNT capital meant 48Hour Discovery could fund its initial cam- paigns, which helped identify early
leads to treat cancer, says Brown. It
also helped the company build mo- mentum. This year, the company was awarded a $100,000 grant (with Dr. Frank Wuest) from the Alberta Cancer Founda- tion’s Breakthrough Fund to advance its work in early-stage cancer research.
The company has worked with RayzeBio, which was recently acquired for $4.1 billion USD for its targeted cancer treat- ment portfolio; 48 Hour Discovery’s worked with Fusion Pharmaceuticals on a treatment for cancer tumours; and with the support from GlycoNet, it was hired by Merck, a global pharmaceutical company, to accelerate drug development programs and help address unmet med- ical needs. The company also collaborat- ed with David Vocadlo of Simon Fraser University to understand the regulation of OGT — an enzyme that helps main- tain overall health — with the discovery of peptides that could potentially lead to new treatments.
38 EDify. MAY.24