Vincere Biosciences

Another excellent Portal Innovations, LLC event! Great to see “Zoom” colleagues in person, catch up with old friends, meet new ones, and do a little early birthday celebration with the team for Andy Lee Michael Schultz, PhD Kwadwo Opuni A. Yonghak Seo Anahit Campbell Gunes Bozkurt, PhD Dan Goddard Richard Margolin Brian Karanja

Thankful to science for broadening my horizons, even if at times I feel like Bones from Star Trek—"Dammit Jim, I'm a neuroscientist, not a kidney expert." New review highlighting that mitophagy, a process we are enhancing with?Vincere Biosciences’?small molecules, is critical for keeping kidney cells healthy. We know mitophagy is important for energetically demanding organs (e.g. brain, heart, kidney) and also for aging. So it's not very surprising to see dysregulation of mitophagy contributes broadly to kidney health: from acute kidney injury to diabetic and chronic kidney disease. Therapeutic targeting of these pathways may offer exponentially better treatment strategies. Basic science has given us so much -?now it’s?time to translate these findings to human benefit! #kidney #mitochondria #mitophagy https://lnkd.in/dt3uw5c4

"FDA approves Medtronic’s brain stimulation system for Parkinson’s disease" Looks promising. Do any of my DBS expert friends have thoughts on the adaptive approach? Michael S Okun, it would be interesting to hear your thoughts. #Parkinson #FDA #DBS

Big congrats to John Goudreau, my PhD advisor and an all around great guy! Also, bonus points for that dopamine molecule in the background ??

This is an unusual Valentine’s Day post. You might even argue Valentine’s Day posts don’t belong on LinkedIn. But in my case, this is a work-related realization—and a punchline I hope helps others. As most of you know, Andy Lee and I are a husband-wife team. Despite notable spouse-team successes both in the science world (e.g., Marie and Pierre Curie) and in business (e.g. Ken and Diane Hendricks), being a spouse team is often frowned upon. It’s not ‘normal.’ And when it does happen, it’s even rarer for the wife to wear the CEO title. Early on, we were advised to downplay our personal relationship, which we did for years. But over time, we realized that what made us different was actually a strength. No one cares more about the success of this company than we do. No one is more aligned in vision, values, and commitment. While working with a spouse comes with its own challenges (like turning off ‘work mode’), it also brings a level of trust and shared purpose that’s impossible to replicate. And that’s when it hit me: ???? ????????’?? ‘????????????’—?????? ????????’?? ?????????????? ?????? ???? ??????????????. The value we bring to the world doesn’t come from fitting in. It comes from the ways we stand out. So here’s the punchline: ???????? ???????? ?????????? ?????? ?????????????????? ???????? ???????? ???????????????? ???????????????? ?????? ?????????????? ?????? ???????? ?????? ???? ????. Here’s Arnold Schwarzenegger talking about getting similar advice about his accent and body size. As someone who has enjoyed many of his movies, I’m glad he chose to embrace his differences. #EmbraceYourUniqueness #Entrepreneurship #Valentine

Looking forward to presenting at the 13th?Alzheimer’s & Parkinson’s?Drug?Development?Summit?(March 18 - 20, Boston MA). Come say hello if you are attending! https://ter.li/oeq6rh

Great few days of meetings lined up at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization BIO CEO & Investor conference in NYC. Say hi if you’re around!

We’ve had some great collaborations with academics, and I look forward to discussing the topic at the upcoming Drug Discovery Strategic Summit. P.S. If you’re an academic who thinks increased mitophagy may be useful in your disease or aging models, we’re open to sharing tool compounds. Message me if interested - or sign up for the conf to chat in person.

I had the chance to interview Spring Behrouz, co-founder and CEO of Vincere Biosciences, a quadraScope portfolio company tackling neurodegenerative and age-related diseases. Maintaining #mitochondrial health has been gaining significant attention as a strategy for treating and preventing age-related diseases. Vincere's drug discovery approach is grounded in human data and leverages #mitophagy to remove damaged or dysfunctional mitochondria selectively. We delved into the rationale behind employing mitophagy inducers to treat #Parkinson’s disease and the challenges of bringing mitochondria-targeted drugs to clinical use. We also discussed the importance of developing actionable #biomarkers for mitochondrial function and the potential synergies between mitophagy inducers and other treatments for age-related diseases. https://lnkd.in/esQ3Ck77

Is there anything more interesting than finding the secrets of life? Fascinating new?Nature Magazine?paper uncovered a few wild findings about mitophagy and USP30 in cancer: - Cancer cells?hijack mitochondria?from T-cells and replace them with defective ones. - These cancer-derived mitochondria are loaded with?USP30, which blocks them from being cleaned up through mitophagy. - The result? T-cells go senescent and lose their tumor-killing abilities. - Here’s the kicker:?Inhibiting USP30 restores T-cell function, shrinks tumors, and supercharges immune checkpoint inhibitors?in mice. At?Vincere Biosciences, we’re developing USP30 inhibitors for Parkinson’s and other diseases of aging, but this paper raises a big question: Could USP30 inhibitors also have potential to help the immune system crush cancer? Original manuscript: https://lnkd.in/e5aGVayz Figure from: https://lnkd.in/eJBW-R7C #Mitochondria #USP30 #CancerResearch #Parkinsons #Longevity #Mitophagy