2026
Cells are organized not only by membrane-bound compartments, but also by dynamic, membrane-less compartments called condensates. Condensates organize proteins and nucleic acids in important ways for both health and disease, revealing new ways to approach historically difficult drug targets.
Cellular contents are primarily understood as being functionally organized within defined, membrane-enclosed compartments like the nucleus and mitochondria.
Cellular contents are also organized in dynamic, membrane-less organelles called condensates that play a key role in important functions like transcription, signaling, and stress response.
Disease-driving condensate targets produce measurable, disease-specific phenotypes. Our platform leverages these phenotypes to identify c-mods that selectively modulate target dysfunction through condensates.
This approach allows us to discover c-mods against a target without predefining a binding pocket. Because condensates are enriched in disordered proteins, this enables us to identify small molecule c-mods for targets that have proved intractable with structure-based approaches.
Condensates organize molecules into distinct functional compartments, and are enriched in disordered, classically-intractable protein targets.
Pathological condensates disrupt normal cellular functions and drive disease, providing a new opportunity to address hard-to-drug targets.
Small molecule c-mod drugs restore healthy function by targeting pathological condensates, including by modulating previously-intractable targets.
Novel condensate mechanisms
Classically intractable targets
Profound functional effects
Our platform combines disease-relevant cellular models, high-content imaging, state-of-the-art automation, and proprietary computational approaches to discover and optimize small molecules that modulate condensates and restore healthy cell function. By connecting changes in condensate behavior with phenotypic and functional assays, our platform allows us to rapidly discover, optimize, and advance promising therapeutic candidates.
