April 3, 2018

DELAWARE -- Cullgen Inc., a biopharmaceutical company focusing on developing new drugs using protein degradation technology today announced that the laboratories of its co-founders, Dr. Jian Jin and Dr. Yue Xiong, have published an article in European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry featuring first-in-class small-molecule degraders of Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase (ALK, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejmech.2018.03.071). ALK encodes a receptor tyrosine kinase. While its expression is very low in normal adult tissues, ALK is activated in many cancer types, including lymphoma, lung, kidney, breast, colon and esophagus, mainly through chromosomal translocations. It has been shown that ALK is a validated target for several ALK-rearranged malignancies. Several FDA-approved ALK inhibitors have demonstrated clinical benefits, but almost all are limited by the emergence of drug resistance. New therapeutic strategies that can successfully overcome the drug resistance should have great impact on patient outcome. The new chemical entities discovered from this study in Dr. Jin’s and Dr. Xiong’s labs target ALK by a mechanism different from the FDA-approved ALK inhibitors and may provide a new therapeutic strategy toward this goal.

About Cullgen Inc.

Cullgen is a drug discovery company leveraging ubiquitin-mediated, small molecule-induced protein degradation technology. The company's research programs focus on novel treatment for cancer, inflammatory, and autoimmune diseases. For more information, visit www.cullgen.com.