ScarTec Therapeutics
Everyone deserves a fresh start
ScarTec Therapeutics
Everyone deserves a fresh start
Everyone deserves a fresh start
Everyone deserves a fresh start
ScarTec Therapeutics is an early stage biotech company developing novel therapeutics against clinical indications with unmet clinical needs, mainly focused on fibrosis and tumor stroma. ScarTec was spun-out in 2016 by the University of Twente. Its mission is to develop novel, targeted, peptide-based drugs to treat pancreatic cancer as well as fibrotic diseases with high unmet medical needs. ScarTec’s core focus is around the preclinical and early clinical development of our candidates.
Fibrosis is the result of chronic injury leading to the deposition of excessive extracellular matrix (ECM) in an organ, causing organ failure. Also, tumors develop extensive fibrosis so-called tumor stroma which hinders the efficacy of anti-cancer therapeutics. Treatment of fibrosis is a unmet clinical need for both fibrotic diseases and cancer. Integrins are heterodimeric receptors for ECM ligands. They regulate various cellular processes and are key therapeutic targets in fibrosis. Inhibition of integrins is of high interest to treat fibrosis.
ScarTec has designed small peptide inhibitors to block integrin alpha5beta1 receptor which play a crucial role in the progression of many fibrotic diseases including sclerosis, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and pancreatic tumor stroma, etc. By blocking this integrin receptor, these peptides inhibited activation of myofibroblasts, reduced collagen deposition, stiffness and progression of disease. In preclinical cancer models, combined treatment of the peptides with chemotherapy improved the therapeutic efficacy in different preclinical mouse models.
Jai is the co-founder of ScarTec Therapeutics and full professor at University of Twente in the Netherlands. Earlier, he worked at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm as Assistant Professor and BiOrion Technologies as Vice-President preclinical research. At the university, his group is focused on the development of novel therapeutic technologies to target the tumor microenvironment and treat cancer effectively. He is a co-author of 100+ peer-reviewed publications in the field and (co)-inventor of several patents. He earned his PhD with honours (2006) in pharmaceutical sciences and drug targeting from University of Groningen, The Netherlands.
Bart is a registered pharmacist and has a PhD in pharmaceutics (2003 Utrecht University). Earlier he headed the drug development company Enceladus. By securing a series of research grants, two important business prizes, several investments and pharma partnerships, he was able to successfully perform a series of clinical trials with two novel drug products in inflammation and cancer. He has been a consultant for other life science startups and established a huge network with pharma companies, CROs, investors, clinicians and regulatory authorities worldwide. He is (co)-inventor on 10+ patents and co-author of 80+ publications in the field.
ScarTec has been supported by Dutch Science Foundation (NWO) – Applied and Engineering Science with Take-off Phase-I and Take-off Phase-2 grants.
Also, ScarTec has obtained funding from regional Interreg North-West Europe Boost4Health vouchers and H2020 SME Phase-I funding from the European Commission and Mkb-innovatiestimulering Regio en Topsectoren (MIT).
De Horst 2, 7522 LW Enschede, Netherlands
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