Ep. 245: Can we defeat cancer?
Guest: Dr. Ali Tehrani, CEO of Zymeworks
But that’s exactly what the team at Vancouver-based Zymeworks plans to do.
The biotech company has developed protein therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. They’re also developing a new delivery system and research process.
The process and the next-generation therapeutics they’ve created allow for the targeting of differentiated biological pathways that lead to internal, partnered therapies. Those targeting platforms have names like Azymetric platform and Zymelink Conjugation Platform and Cytotoxins.
The Azymetric platform, for example, spontaneously assembles antibodies into a single molecule that can easily adapt to rapidly screen, target and sequence combinations of bispecific activities which significantly reduce drug development timelines.
The company’s lead product ZW25 is currently being elevated to Phase 2 clinical trials targeting two distinct domains of the human epidermal growth factor receptor 2, or HER2 – a protein that promotes the growth of cancer cells.
The company was founded in 2003 and is working in partnership with global pharmaceutical companies such as Merck, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson and others.
In addition to taking on cancer, Zymeworks is playing a fundamental role is ensuring Vancouver becomes a global centre of excellence in biotech. The company is led by Dr Ali Therani, who holds degrees in Biochemistry from the University of Massachusetts and has a Doctoral degree in Microbiology and Immunology from UBC.
Not only is he a brilliant scientist but he also has an impressive track record in leadership, having been awarded the UBC Faculty of Science Achievement Award for Outstanding Leadership in 2002. Dr Tehrani says, “We’ve done a really good job of educating brilliant scientists and then watched them leave Canada. I want to give them a reason to come home.”
We invited Dr Ali Tehrani to join us for a Conversation That Matters about the biotechnical innovations that are being developed at Zymeworks and his company’s role in turning Vancouver into a centre of excellence and influence in scientific research.
