AiCuris nominates team of researchers from the Universitätsklinikum Erlangen as one of the 2022 winners of AiCubator Resident Status, a corporate innovation accelerator initiative

• Prof. Dr. Manfred Marschall and his team from the Institute for Clinical and Molecular Virology Universitätsklinikum Erlangen, (Medical Center of the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany) selected to join AiCubator program: Prof. Marschall’s team identified a novel potential target for the treatment of herpesvirus infections
• This newly selected project follows Madam Therapeutics, which joined the AiCubator in April this year based on its innovative AI-based approach to fighting antimicrobial resistance with antimicrobial and antibiofilm peptides
• AiCubator was launched by AiCuris mid-2020 providing first-hand support to transform groundbreaking discoveries into innovative therapies to fight infectious diseases

Wuppertal, Germany, September 08, 2022 - AiCuris Anti-infective Cures AG, a leading company in the discovery and development of drugs against infectious diseases, today announced the second winner for 2022 of the company’s accelerator AiCubator initiative. Prof. Dr. Marschall’s team identified a novel potential target for the treatment of herpesvirus infections.

“We are excited to welcome Prof. Dr. Manfred Marschall and his team as one of the winners of the AiCubator Resident Status in 2022,” said Dr. Holger Zimmermann, CEO of AiCuris Anti-infective Cures AG. “The project from the Institute for Clinical and Molecular Virology, Universitätsklinikum Erlangen well represents the type of program that we want to promote with the AiCubator – namely, new, unprecedented approaches to combatting infectious diseases for which there currently are few or no available medicines. We are very much looking forward to working with the winning team and supporting them to advance their promising project to the next level.”

To receive the AiCubator resident status, anti-infectives projects submitted need to address various criteria, including status of target identification, preliminary efficacy data on hits, targeted indications, and potential competitive advantages over existing standard of care. Winning projects, selected by AiCuris experts, will benefit, over a period of up to three years, from AiCuris’ scientific and early drug development support and expertise, as well as from its understanding of the industry, to advance their ideas and approaches.

The Project: A novel target for the treatment of a broad spectrum of herpesvirus infections

Herpesviruses, including the human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), can cause life-long latent infections and may cause life-threatening complications, as particularly concerning the case of HCMV infections in unborn children or infants that can result in hearing impairment, growth disorders, enlargement of the liver and spleen, developmental brain disorders or, in the case of embryos or fetuses, even stillbirth. The nuclear egress complex (NEC), including the viral protein kinase and regulatory host factors, is believed to be crucial for herpes viral replication. Researchers from the Institute for Clinical and Molecular Virology at the Universitätsklinikum Erlangen guided by Prof. Dr. Manfred Marschall, in close scientific cooperation with three additional academic partners at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nürnberg (Prof. Dr. Yves Muller, Prof. Dr. Jutta Eichler, Prof. Dr. Heinrich Sticht) discovered unique structural and functional properties of the globular domains of HCMV-specific NEC, making NECs novel potential targets for the treatment of herpes virus infections. The project is focused on further elucidating the mechanism of core NEC interaction, and the exploration of the NEC as an antiviral drug target.

“We appreciate and feel honored that our project has been selected for the AiCubator program,” said Prof. Dr. Manfred Marschall. “It will be incredibly rewarding to have this focused scientific support and business expertise of AiCuris behind us - after having already worked together in research collaborations in the past (e.g. antiviral characterization of letermovir) - to help further advance our project and contribute to the development of a mechanistically novel anti-herpes viral drug in an area of high unmet medical need.”

About AiCubator

To promote early ideas that might lead to novel resistance-breaking antibiotic or anti-infective approaches, each year, AiCuris selects promising research projects for the AiCubator, an innovative corporate incubator. The AiCubator initiative is dedicated to academic scientific groups or recently formed biotech start-ups with early-stage anti-infective projects in areas of high priority that are scientifically attractive but too early for licensing deals. The program was designed to help scientists and start-ups build their own business and grow their underlying ideas and approaches to an advanced level. Residents of the AiCubator program receive long-term first-hand support, including financial, business development as well as scientific and regulatory advice. Additionally, they gain insight into anti-infective drug development and the pharmaceutical business.

The next round to apply for AiCubator 2023 will start this October. Interested research groups and young start-ups with early-stage projects in the field of anti-infectives can find further information and download the relevant application forms from the company's AiCubator website.

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About AiCuris Anti-infective Cures AG 

AiCuris, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, was founded in 2006 as a spin-off from Bayer and focuses on the discovery and development of drugs targeting infectious diseases. PREVYMIS™ (letermovir), a first-in-class non-nucleoside cytomegalovirus (CMV) inhibitor acting via a novel mechanism of action, was licensed to MSD in 2012 and is approved in the EU, US, Japan, and other parts of the world for the prevention of human CMV infections in adults who received allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. The Company has a broad pipeline of clinical-stage and pre-clinical anti-viral and anti-bacterial product candidates. Its wholly owned lead asset, pritelivir, targeting single- or double-resistant herpes simplex virus (HSV) infections, is in phase 3 clinical development. Additional candidates are in development for the treatment of viruses, such as hepatitis B virus (HBV), adenoviruses and BK virus (BKV), as well as SARS-CoV2 and other viruses with pandemic potential. In the field of antibacterials, AiCuris seeks to develop innovative treatment options for indications with high medical need, including life-threatening, multidrug-resistant, hospital-treated pathogens. Product candidates for antimicrobial resistance (AMR), diabetic foot ulcers and sepsis are in pre-clinical development.

AiCuris is supported by a strong shareholder base, including lead investor SANTO Holding.  

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