FREEHOLD, NJ, June 30, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Avalon GloboCare Corp. (NASDAQ: AVCO), a leading global developer of innovative cell-based technologies and therapies, today announced a new study utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) enhanced protein design “QTY Code” technology. The method is expected to accelerate the development of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of cancer.
The research demonstrates a new method to quickly predict the design of so-called “water-loving” or hydrophilic variant structures of the 14 glucose transport membrane proteins in cells, making it easier for researchers to study the proteins in water. Glucose transport membrane proteins are deregulated in many tumor types and represent a potentially important target for cancer therapy. The study was published on June 27, 2022 in QRB Discoverya peer-reviewed, research journal of biological function, structure and mechanism.
The breakthrough technology “QTY Code” developed by Avalon and the lab of Dr. Shuguang Zhang, Ph.D., of MIT’s Media Lab in Boston, MA, is a protein design platform that can convert water-insoluble transmembrane receptor proteins into water-soluble proteins, enabling them to be used in many clinical applications, including drug development.
A team of scientists led by Dr. Zhang applied the QTY code to the 14 glucose transport membrane proteins that transport sugar to cells. They used Google’s AlphaFold2, a DeepMind AI program, which can accurately and quickly predict how proteins fold. dr. Zhang and his team used the QTY code with the open-source AlphaFold2 to predict the structures of these proteins in both their natural hydrophobic forms and their QTY code-altered water-soluble forms.
“This new publication with our collaborator, Professor Zhang of MIT, using the QTY code, has demonstrated a new method for rapidly predicting the structures of water-soluble versions of glucose transporters, which are proteins important in cancer,” said David Jin, MD, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of Avalon. “This is an important discovery because these proteins are difficult to study and until now poorly understood. These transporters, especially those that regulate glucose, play a vital role in cancer growth. We believe our method will enhance our understanding of these proteins. and accelerate the development of antibodies against it for cancer treatment.”
“With AlphaFold2, we were able to obtain structural information about soluble versions of these transporters within hours, whereas in the past it took four to five weeks with a fast computer to obtain the protein structures. We believe that using the QTY code method to study water-soluble variants of these transmembrane proteins and other similar proteins is likely to have a positive impact in the fields of biotechnology and cancer biology,” concluded Dr. jin.
Authors of the QRB Discovery paper include Dr. Zhang and Eva Smorodina, an undergraduate intern in structural biology at the Greiff Lab at the University of Oslo; drs. Fei Tao and Rui Qing of Shanghai Jiaotong University (Dr. Qing was previously a postdoctoral researcher in the MIT Media Lab and later a research scientist at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT); dr. Steve Yang, an MIT alumnus and now at PT Metiska Farma in Indonesia; and dr. David Jin, MD, Ph.D. of Avalon GloboCare Corp., whose collaboration is the research of Dr. Zhang helped to apply the QTY code to the study of cancer cells. Avalon GloboCare funded the research.
About Avalon GloboCare Corp.
Avalon GloboCare Corp. (NASDAQ: AVCO) is a vertically integrated, leading clinical-stage CellTech biodeveloper committed to advancing and enhancing innovative, transformative immune effector cell therapy, exosome technology, and COVID-19-related diagnostics and therapies. Avalon also provides strategic consulting and outsourcing services to facilitate and enhance its clients’ growth and development, as well as competitiveness in the healthcare and CellTech industry markets. Through its subsidiary structure with unique integration of vertical markets from innovative R&D to automated biomanufacturing and accelerated clinical development, Avalon establishes a leading role in cellular immunotherapy (including CAR-T/NK), exosome technology (ACTEX™) and regenerative therapies. For more information about Avalon GloboCare, please visit: www.avalon-globocare.com†
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