SAN FRANCISCO & SHANGHAI– ShouTi Inc., a clinical-stage global biopharmaceutical company developing novel oral therapeutics to treat a wide range of chronic diseases, today introduced Basecamp Bio, a wholly owned subsidiary dedicated to fueling ShouTi’s pipeline and pursuing drug discovery partnerships.
Basecamp Bio integrates unique insights, skills, technological know-how and experience to navigate the complex challenges of membrane protein structure-based drug discovery. Its mission is to prosecute the most challenging structure-based drug discovery targets, including G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), and deliver discovery assets to ShouTi’s development pipeline. In addition, Basecamp Bio will explore selective partnerships to tackle high value targets pursued by the biopharmaceutical industry.
Basecamp Bio is led by Yingli Ma, Ph.D., President, who brings close to 15 years of research, technology, and drug discovery experience including her previous role as general manager of Amgen Shanghai Research Center. Dr. Ma led Amgen’s global structural biology and drug discovery programs in cardiometabolic and inflammatory diseases.
“By bringing together our deep expertise in structure-based drug design with leading drug discovery technologies, we aim to create orally-available small molecule medicines against some of the most complex targets including those validated by biologics,” said Dr. Ma. “With all of these breakthrough technologies under one roof, and access to the Shanghai biotech contract research organization ecosystem as a resource, Basecamp Bio has the ability to greatly accelerate the discovery of assets with best-in-class potential.”
Basecamp Bio’s technology leverages the power of cryo-electron microscopy, machine learning and X-ray crystallography, as the basis for its molecular designs. The company employs state-of-the-art small molecule hit identification, including DNA encoded library technology and affinity mass spectrometry selections for membrane proteins. This is integrated with cutting-edge computational chemistry and medicinal chemistry along with a matrix of pharmacological assay platforms. ShouTi’s exceptional experience with cell surface receptor signaling and pharmacology will further enable Basecamp Bio to achieve its goal of designing medicines with optimal pharmaceutical properties to address patient needs.
“Given the broad potential of the platform and our team’s deep expertise with challenging drug targets, we are excited to deploy Basecamp Bio to both advance our own pipeline and enable early-stage drug discovery partnerships to extend the reach of our leading-edge science,” said Melita Sun Jung, Chief Business Officer, ShouTi.
