Having secured a seed funding round of $3 million in April this year, Singapore-based biotech company Albatroz Therapeutics is developing therapeutic antibodies against a novel target that degrades the extracellular matrix (ECM). The novel ECM degradation target is a protein complex activated by a glycosylation pathway, which plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of solid tumors and arthritis – the two indications that the company is currently focused on.
While at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) in Singapore, Fred Bard, the chief executive officer (CEO) and scientific co-founder of Albatroz, discovered the pathway that controls protein glycosylation and drives ECM degradation.