Xlife Sciences’ (SIX: XLS) portfolio company alytas therapeutics (located in Jena, Germany) explores innovative, antibody-based therapeutic concepts for treatment of morbid obesity. The project is focused on the efficient elimination of hypertrophic adipocytes that are responsible for obesity-associated complications like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or cancer. Therefore, antibody treatment will not only reduce body fat mass, but will also improve homeostasis of adipose tissue.

To conduct a deep functional in vitro characterization of recently identified antibodies, alytas therapeutics and CureDiab Metabolic Research have signed a research contract. As a spin-off from the German Diabetes Center in Duesseldorf, CureDiab is able to use the excellent lab infrastructure and expertise regarding adipose tissue metabolism.

Frank Plöger, Chief Scientific Officer of Xlife Sciences, says: “We are happy about the collaboration with CureDiab Metabolic Research for additional research and development of the innovative approach of alytas therapeutics for treatment of morbid obesity. It is our goal to contribute to treatment of affected patients by eliminating hypertrophic fat cells that play an essential role in the development of obesity-associated complications”.

 

 

Juergen Eckel, CEO of CureDiab, explains: “In this project, CureDiab will establish a model of hypertrophic adipocytes and explore the cellular changes of the respective antigens, with the final goal to identify binding and elimination of hypertrophic fat cells by specific antibodies. We highly appreciate the collaboration with alytas therapeutics and look forward to an exciting scientific project”.