Reata develops small molecules to treat intractable diseases

Overview

Reata’s technological focus is on the development of small molecules to treat intractable diseases such as cancer, inflammation, and neurodegenerative diseases. Our pipeline is based around two important platform technologies:

Reata is the world leader in developing Antioxidant Inflammation Modulators (AIMs). AIMs control the balance of pro-and anti-inflammatory signaling molecules within the cell by mimicking the body’s own natural regulators of inflammation. Like these natural regulators, AIMs bind to proteins responsible for sensing the redox balance, turning off master genes (called “transcription factors”) that promote inflammation and turning on counter-balancing transcription factors that resolve inflammation. Through this mechanism, they turn down the production of important inflammatory mediators (known as “cytokines”) such as IL-1, IL-6, and TNFα and quench the inflammatory drive within inflamed cells. Reata owns the intellectual property rights to multiple classes of AIMs and is collaborating with many leading laboratories on this important emerging area of biology.

Reata is also a leader in the emerging field of protein misfolding. Reata Founding Scientist Dr. Philip J. Thomas of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas was a pioneer in establishing the link between protein folding and disease. In recent years, protein folding has become an important emerging area of science and, as predicted, it has become widely accepted that defects in protein folding underlie a large number of intractable diseases including cancer, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease), Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and cystic fibrosis. Reata is conducting an active discovery program to identify small molecule chaperones that correct misfolded proteins using a best-in-class assay invented in Dr. Thomas’ laboratory.

In addition to these platforms, Reata has in-licensed rights to several anti-cancer drugs that operate by both precedented and unprecedented mechanisms. Click here to learn more about these technologies.

Reata’s technologies are the result of fruitful collaborations with leading investigators throughout the country. We remain interested in in-licensing innovative technologies that address major unmet clinical needs. Click here to learn more about in-licensing at Reata.