Confo Therapeutics–Flanders (govt): grant, 201802– VLAIO grant €1m over 16 months to increase GPCR screening capabilites

	Period	2018-02-20
	Region	Flanders (Flemish region)
	Country	Belgium
	Money taker	Confo Therapeutics N.V.
	Money source	VLAIO (Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Agentschap Innoveren & Ondernemen)
	Group	Flanders (govt)
	Product	drug screening (technology)
	Product 2	business development (state/region)

Confo Therapeutics N.V.. (2/20/18). "Press Release: Confo Therapeutics Is Awarded a EUR 1M Grant to Increase Its Screening Capabilities". Ghent.

Confo Therapeutics announced today that it has received a €1 million grant from the Flemish Government through Flanders Innovation & Entrepreneurship (VLAIO). The grant will be used to support the development of new methods for screening libraries of small molecules for the discovery of new therapeutic candidates targeting G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), using the company’s proprietary conformationsensitive single domain antibodies or Confobodies.

Commenting on the grant, Dr. Cedric Ververken, CEO, said: “Once again we are grateful for the financial support by VLAIO totaling €1 million over 16 months. The grant will support the continued development of our GPCR screening capabilities.”

Dr. Christel Menet, CSO, added: “The goal of this project is to develop unique proprietary Confobody-based screening technologies providing a ‘next generational’ improvement in performance over current GPCR screening approaches. These new methods will be highly complementary to our current Confoscreen assays and will thereby maximize our overall chance of success in discovering therapeutic candidates to previously ‘undruggable’ GPCRs.”

More information:
Email: info@confotherapeutics.com
www.confotherapeutics.com

About Confo Therapeutics

Confo Therapeutics is a VUB-VIB spin-off co-founded in 2015 by VIB and Capricorn Venture Partners with the support of MINTS, PMV, QBIC and V-Bio Ventures. The company is building a portfolio of first-in-class programs based on its proprietary Confo® technology which makes use of antibody fragments or “Confobodies” to stabilize G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) in a particular conformation of interest as a superior starting point for drug discovery.

GPCRs are attractive drug targets in the treatment of many different conditions, playing an essential part in numerous life processes and influencing diseases.

In addition to developing its own pipeline, Confo Therapeutics is entering into revenue-generating drug discovery partnerships with select pharma companies, on GPCR targets which do not compete with the internal projects. The company has ongoing collaborations with Lundbeck and Roche.

More info: www.confotherapeutics.com