TECHNOLOGY
“HIDDEN IN PLAIN VIEW”
The cancer immune shielding pathway was discovered serendipitously by Saccharo’s co-founder while developing vaccines for bacterial pathogens. He discovered that fetal cells, cancer cells and certain pathogens deployed a similar polysaccharide-based mechanism for evading human immune defenses.
NOVEL CANCER TARGET
Key to the novel immune shielding pathway is a highly conserved polysaccharide, dPSA (de-N-acetyl-polysialic acid), expressed during fetal development, present on some human pathogens, and re-expressed specifically on cancer cells. Cell surface dPSA in cancer depends on re-expression of a fetal gene coding for the polysialyltransferase enzyme that produces polysialic acid. dPSA modified nucleolin is highly and specifically expressed in cancer.
ASSOCIATION WITH NUCLEOLIN
Saccharo has shown that dPSA is linked to or associated with a nuclear protein, nucleolin*, that can be found on the surface of cancer cells but not normal cells. The functional role of nucleolin on cancer cells has been unclear but research at Saccharo is beginning to uncover critical linkages between cell surface nucleolin and dPSA which may serve to define novel points of intervention in the treatment of solid tumors and hematologic cancers.
UNMET MEDICAL NEED-ADVANTAGE FOR PATIENTS
THE PROBLEM
Existing cancer drug targets are typically protein enriched, but not uniquely expressed on cancer cells. The lack of cancer specificity can result in off-target toxicity and damaging side effects. Additionally, patients can develop resistance to treatment because the protein target mutates, rendering the drug ineffective.
SACCHARO’S VALUE PROPOSITION
Saccharo’s novel polysaccharide target (dPSA) is highly conserved and specifically expressed on cancer cells. Antibodies or other drugs that target dPSA will selectively and consistently kill cancer cells potentially as a potent mono-therapy with superior safety.
PIPELINE
Saccharo is advancing promising high affinity antibody lead drug candidates generated from the anti-dPSA platform with demonstrated unique targeting properties. In addition, multi-modality drug formats, and diagnostic screening applications are under development.
Saccharo’s development pipeline is based on the dPSA platform to exploit the unique properties of the dPSA molecule to optimize binding to a range of cancer types. Antibody candidates can be developed in multiple formats depending on the cancer indication. Saccharo’s final development candidate SAC-253 ADC is a first-in-class antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) with potential for broad oncology application.
SACCHARO’S TEAM
Saccharo’s leadership team is composed of distinguished experts with extensive drug development experience in cancer and other diseases from Genentech, Novartis, Amgen, Bayer and other research institutions.
Sherry Martin-Moe, PhD
CEO & President, Founder
Greg Moe, PhD
CSO, Inventor, Co-Founder
Tom Boone
Head, PRotein engineering & CMC
Corine Dietz-Muegge, MBA
VP, Business Development
Margaret Kim, MBA
CFO
DRUG PROGRAM
Leonard Post, PhD
CSO Vivance, BioMarin I SVP Onyx | VP Parke-Davis
Gideon Bollag, PhD
CEO Opna, Plexxikon (Daiichi-Sankyo)
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
David Cheresh, PhD
Distinguished Prof. Pathology, UCSD
Len Presta, PhD
Dir. Tech., Genentech | Distinguished Fellow, Merck
Jude Canon, PhD
VP Oncovalent | Director Res. Amgen
CMC
Susan Hershenson, PhD
Director Gates Foundation I VP Genentech, Amgen
MEDICAL
Pamela Klein, MD
VP Genentech I Director NCI
REGULATORY TOXICOLOGY
Marque Todd, DVM, MS, DABT
Lead Pfizer | Amgen I Chiron
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Sheryl Martin-Moe, PhD
CEO, President & Co-founder
Greg Moe, PhD
CSO & Co-founder
Winnie Wan, PhD, MBA
Executive Advisor | Serial CEO
CONTACT US
Sheryl Martin-Moe, PhD
CEO/President and Co-founder
510-219-6741
© Saccharo Inc. 2022