Solgate GmbH announced today that it has been successfully awarded a third-year grant extension of their FFG Basisprogramm grant to further develop its platform aimed at enabling hit identification on solute carrier (SLC) proteins, a promising but highly underexploited class of drug targets. As part of this ongoing project, Solgate has developed SLC-tailored and scalable technologies based on mass spectrometry, high-content imaging, and cell-based assays that allow rapid identification of promising hits against potential targets in neurological, autoimmune, and metabolic disorders. 

During the first two years of the project, Solgate has been able to demonstrate the platform’s capabilities and designed an SLC-tailored chemical library to allow in-house hit identification. The recently awarded grant will be focused on further expanding the pipeline and technology.

For more information, contact: office@solgate.com

Solgate GmbH pursues the development of drugs modulating the activity of SLC proteins, focusing on the important roles of SLCs in neurological, autoimmune, and metabolic disorders. Through a proprietary discovery platform that combines several technologies, Solgate designs and rapidly advances novel chemical matter against selected SLCs. Solgate GmbH was founded by Ariel Bensimon, Georg Winter, Stefan Kubicek, Giulio Superti-Furga, and Gaia Novarino, together with CeMM and IST Austria.

Solgate is a leading drug discovery company specializing in membrane transporters known as solute carriers (SLCs). To further explore the potential of SLC targets, Solgate has partnered with Curie.Bio, a Boston-based venture firm specializing in therapeutic companies. Together, they have selected two molecular targets from the broader repertoire, while Solgate continues to advance its technology platform and independent pipeline. This collaboration, established through the US-based Cellgate Therapeutics Inc., brings together Solgate’s skilled biology and chemistry teams in Austria with Curie.Bio’s drug discovery and development expertise and network in the US. 

For more information, contact: office@solgate.com

Solgate GmbH pursues the development of drugs modulating the activity of SLC proteins, focusing on the important roles of SLCs in neurological, autoimmune, and metabolic disorders. Through a proprietary discovery platform that combines several technologies, Solgate designs and rapidly advances novel chemical matter against selected SLCs. Solgate GmbH was founded by Ariel Bensimon, Georg Winter, Stefan Kubicek, Giulio Superti-Furga, and Gaia Novarino, together with CeMM and IST Austria.

Solgate’s CEO Ariel Bensimon presented the company technology platform and recent scientific results at the final ReSOLUTE consortium conference held in Vienna. Surrounded by a scenic venue and a thriving and growing community of scientists passionate about transporters, he highlighted the systematic and platform-based approach Solgate is taking to target SLCs. Moreover, he presented recent work carried out in collaboration with an academic founding partner to identify chemical probes aimed at a promising target related to lactate metabolism.

The ReSOLUTE consortium is a public–private partnership supported by the IMI2 initiative with the aim of generating tools, reagents, and assays for the enabling of drug discovery on SLCs, a large but mostly understudied target class of membrane proteins.

A recording of the presentation, titled “Discovering the next SLC drug through a functional transport platform” is available on the conference website: RESOLUTE – Research Empowerment on Solute Carriers (re-solute.eu)

For more information, contact: office@solgate.com

Solgate GmbH pursues the development of drugs modulating the activity of SLC proteins, focusing on the important roles of SLCs in neurological, autoimmune, and metabolic disorders. Through a proprietary discovery platform that combines several technologies, Solgate designs and rapidly advances novel chemical matter against selected SLCs. Solgate GmbH was founded by Ariel Bensimon, Georg Winter, Stefan Kubicek, Giulio Superti-Furga, and Gaia Novarino, together with CeMM and IST Austria.

Solgate GmbH announced today that it was awarded funding by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) as part of the agency’s Basisprogramm, which aims to support innovative companies in the development of a product with commercial potential. Within this six-figure, three-year program, Solgate will leverage this funding to implement and further develop its technological platform tailored to solute carriers (SLCs), which employs cell-based scalable assays to identify novel chemical matters targeting transporters implicated in disease, with a particular focus on neurological, autoimmune, and metabolic disorders. 

Through this FFG funding, Solgate will expand its team and experimental capabilities to tackle multiple SLC targets and obtain proof-of concept data to enable the development of an internal pipeline of drug discovery programs with strong commercial potential.

For more information, contact: office@solgate.com

Solgate GmbH pursues the development of drugs modulating the activity of SLC proteins, focusing on the important roles of SLCs in neurological, autoimmune, and metabolic disorders. Through a proprietary discovery platform that combines several technologies, Solgate designs and rapidly advances novel chemical matter against selected SLCs. Solgate GmbH was founded by Ariel Bensimon, Georg Winter, Stefan Kubicek, Giulio Superti-Furga, and Gaia Novarino, together with CeMM and IST Austria.

Solgate GmbH was successfully awarded a Seed grant from the Austria Wirtschaftsservice (AWS) to further develop its chemoproteomics platform geared towards the identification of new compounds targeting solute carriers (SLCs). The grant follows up the successful award of a pre-seed grant in 2021, which provided initial support to the platform development. As part of these efforts, Solgate will establish a mass-spectrometry-based pipeline to systematically identify small molecules able to bind to SLC proteins that could act as chemical starting points for future drug discovery programs.

Chemoproteomics approaches based on functionalized fragments are a recent and highly scalable technology that allows for the systematic identification of fragment– protein interactions while keeping the target proteins in their native cellular environment. This approach has shown particular promise when applied to SLC proteins and will complement the metabolism- and image-based approaches currently under development at Solgate.

For more information, contact: office@solgate.com

Solgate GmbH pursues the development of drugs modulating the activity of SLC proteins, focusing on the important roles of SLCs in neurological, autoimmune, and metabolic disorders. Through a proprietary discovery platform that combines several technologies, Solgate designs and rapidly advances novel chemical matter against selected SLCs. Solgate GmbH was founded by Ariel Bensimon, Georg Winter, Stefan Kubicek, Giulio Superti-Furga, and Gaia Novarino, together with CeMM and IST Austria.

Solgate GmbH, an Austrian early-stage biotech company, announces the completion of its first financing round from a group of venture and private investors.

Solgate was incorporated in 2020 by a high-profile founding team and with intellectual property from the leading research institutions CeMM (Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences) and IST Austria (Institute of Science and Technology Austria), with support from the Austrian business agency (AWS). The company applies methods from chemistry, cell biology, and advanced analytics to develop drugs that target membrane transporters known as solute carrier proteins (SLCs) – a novel, largely unexploited, and highly promising class of drug targets. The company is located at IST PARK, the technology park adjacent to the campus of IST Austria.

Alexander Schwartz, Partner at IST cube, comments: “We are very happy to work with Solgate, where a top-team of renowned researchers who have pioneered the field of SLCs, are applying a new approach towards drug discovery. On top of the synergies among the interdisciplinary founding team, we see the great potential that emerges from the cooperation of scientists from two academic institutions. We are happy to participate in this investment round and are excited about the future of Solgate.”

Giulio Superti-Furga, CeMM Director, and Co-Founder of Solgate, remarks: “Solgate is the first start-up born out of a cooperation between CeMM and IST Austria and the sixth startup company, which has been created based on CeMM’s intellectual property and know-how. We are grateful for the trust of the investors and are certain that Solgate will be a great success.”

“Membrane transporters, such as SLCs are exciting therapeutic targets that show promise in the development of breakthrough treatments for challenging diseases. We see an opportunity for Solgate to benefit from advances in technology and SLC biology, to create and develop new drug candidates targeting SLCs. We are thrilled to have the support and domain expertise of our investors and look forward to accomplishing our vision even more rapidly together”, adds Ariel Bensimon, co-founder and CEO of Solgate.

For more information, contact:

Solgate GmbH
Ariel Bensimon, CEO
ariel.bensimon@solgate.com

IST cube
Alexander Schwartz
alexander.schwartz@ist-cube.com

Solgate GmbH pursues the development of drugs modulating the activity of SLC proteins, focusing on the important roles of SLCs in neurological, autoimmune, and metabolic disorders. Through a proprietary discovery platform that combines several technologies, Solgate designs and rapidly advances novel chemical matter against selected SLCs. Solgate GmbH was founded by Ariel Bensimon, Georg Winter, Stefan Kubicek, Giulio Superti-Furga, and Gaia Novarino, together with CeMM and IST Austria.

IST cube is a seed fund focusing on deep-tech and science-based start-ups and spin-offs. The fund leads investment rounds in pre-seed and seed stages with the ability for follow-on investments. IST cube supports the portfolio companies with equity, know-how and network. In addition, the fund has a strong partner in the Institute of Science and Technology Austria, which provides access to scientific infrastructure.