PROJECT
SUPERVISORS
Project Supervisor
Andreas Ladurner
Background
As the Founder, Managing Director and CSO of Eisbach Bio, our team and I spearhead the development of allosteric inhibitors targeting synthetic-lethal cancer targets. We develop transformative medicines in an exciting area of unmet clinical need. I am also Chair of Physiological Chemistry at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) Munich, where we discover novel paradigms of how metabolites regulate gene activity and teach medical students. I served as Coordinator of multiple EU networks, including the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Network "Chromatin & Metabolism" and “Nucleosome4D”.
My experience extends to my tenure as Principal Investigator at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg. I have worked in many different settings, including as Editor of Nature Structural & Molecular Biology in New York, as a Wellcome Trust Prize recipient at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Berkeley, a PhD student at Cambridge and for SmithKline Beecham (now GSK) as a scientist. With a robust background in both academia and industry, my team and I bring a wealth of experience in chromatin biology, gene regulation and biophysics as well as scientific communication, education and mentoring.
Research
Eisbach Bio GmbH focuses on pioneering precision oncology through the development of allosteric drugs that target molecular machines essential for tumor genome reorganization. Utilizing our proprietary ALLOS platform, we identify and exploit the genetic vulnerabilities of cancer cells by targeting the unique molecular vulnerabilities of our target enzymes, notably the allosteric sites that we identify, validate and target using small molecule drug candidates. Eisbach's research encompasses nucleosome remodeling enzymes, DNA-dependent nuclear helicases as well as nuclear PARP family enzymes, all of which are critical for efficient DNA repair and chromatin reorganization.
Our allosteric approach aims to create safe, orally bioavailable first-in-class or best-in-class therapies that induce synthetic lethality in cancer cells, effectively halting tumor growth while minimizing damage to healthy cells, thus significantly reducing side-effects. Our lead candidate includes a small molecule inhibitor of ALC1, an important molecular machine that reorganizes the genome upon DNA damage, which is entering clinical trials this summer, promising significant advancements in cancer treatment.
Publications
Method to Evaluate the Capability of Compounds on the Trapping of Proteins. US Patent application PCT/EP2021/084088, US20240102994A1
ALC1 Inhibitors and Synergy with PARPi. US Patent application PCT/EP2021/084089, US20240033363A1
The Oncogenic Helicase ALC1 Regulates PARP Inhibitor Potency by Trapping PARP2 at DNA Breaks. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molcel.2020.10.009