Lund, Sweden and Dublin, Ireland – 2 December 2024: SelekTx, a UCD spin-out project developing a new class of precision biologics targeting hard-to-drug disease proteins, today announced that Professors Sara Linse (Lund University) and David O’Connell (University College Dublin) have been awarded an Industrial Biotechnology and Environmental Biotechnology - Project Grant by the Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF) to advance the foundational science underpinning the SelekTx platform.
The three-year research grant will support studies that will further the development of SelekTx protein therapeutics—hyperstable, miniaturised binding proteins designed to modulate disease-relevant targets such as G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and amyloidogenic proteins. The funded project aims to develop and refine methods of protein complex analysis including Cryo-EM approaches that are crucial to resolving the interaction of Selektide drugs with target receptors for example.
The grant complements SelekTx’s Dublin-based platform development and will strengthen the overall pipeline by enabling fundamental advances in scaffold engineering, functional screening, and manufacturing readiness. It also supports the deployment of bacterial and improved phage display technologies and in vivo optimisation strategies critical to tackling particularly complex and under-addressed therapeutic targets.
“This international collaboration is central to SelekTx’s vision,” said Prof. David O’Connell, Co-Investigator and co-founder of SelekTx. “By combining our disease-specific drug discovery pipeline at UCD with Lund’s leading expertise in structural biochemistry, we are creating a strong scientific foundation that not only deepens our biological insights but also enhances the commercial readiness of our platform.”
The award marks a significant endorsement of the Selektide approach, which integrates phage and yeast display selection strategies with deep sequencing, AI-guided structural modelling, and functional validation to identify selective drug candidates for some of the most intractable disease targets. Together with ongoing support from Enterprise Ireland, the Novo Nordisk Foundation funding ensures that SelekTx is strongly positioned for its spin-out and future collaborations with pharmaceutical partners.
About Novo Nordisk Foundation
The Novo Nordisk Foundation is an independent Danish foundation with a mission to advance research and innovation that improves human health and the sustainability of society. Through its Distinguished Innovator Grant, the Foundation supports exceptional researchers in translating original scientific discoveries into novel therapies and diagnostics. The program provides multi-year funding for high-risk, high-impact projects with strong commercialisation potential in the life sciences.
For further information, please contact:
Prof. David O’Connell – david.oconnell@ucd.ie
Prof. Sara Linse – sara.linse@biochemistry.lu.se
www.selektx.com