In two new research collaborations between McMaster University and biotechnology firm Kapoose Creek Bio (KC Bio), academic and industry scientists are working together to discover and develop novel medicines.
Backed by two of Canada’s premier research funding programs — Mitacs Accelerate and Innovation Factory’s SOPHIE (Southern Ontario Pharmaceutical and Health Innovation Ecosystem) — the new projects will not only bolster McMaster’s drug discovery pipeline but also fast-track the development of an all-new drug candidate that targets neurological conditions, like depression.
“Partnerships between academia and industry are absolutely essential to ensuring that our research has real-world impact,” says Eric Brown, a professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences, and the CEO at KC Bio.
“These projects position us very well to get at least one new drug into clinics, and they also open the door to the potential discovery of several others as well.”
The discovery project, supported by Mitacs, will see McMaster researchers use advanced profiling techniques to identify new therapeutic compounds from KC Bio’s extensive collection of fungal specimens and extracts discovered at its field station in British Columbia.
The aim of this work is to expand the company’s microbial chemical library to upwards of 35,000 molecules and extracts with therapeutic potential.
“Together, we’re assembling an incredibly vast and unique collection of molecules that can be mined for new drug candidates,” says Brown, an executive member of McMaster’s Global Nexus and a member of the Michael G. DeGroote Institute for Infectious Disease Research.
Because Mitacs-funded projects support both innovation and talent development, McMaster learners will be heavily involved in the new research effort. Already, many of Brown’s trainees have gained valuable field experience working out of KC Bio’s research station on Vancouver Island.
“Visiting the field station on Vancouver Island was an incredible experience,” says Julia Deisinger, a postdoctoral fellow in Brown’s lab at McMaster.
“Being part of the team collecting fungal specimens in such a remote and biodiverse environment was truly special. Each day began with foraging in the rainforest and ended with cataloging and preparing samples that would later become part of our fungal culture collection and extract library.”
A group of McMaster learners foraging for new fungal chemistry at the Kapoose Creek research station in B.C. (Kapoose Creek Bio photo)
Brown is optimistic about the potential yields of this new discovery platform, noting that it builds on “a proven strategy.”
In 2023, using a similar process, KC Bio researchers discovered KCB-100, an all-new fungi-derived compound with important drug-like properties. In the time since, the new compound has not only shown to enhance key proteins essential to brain function but also to successfully cross the blood-brain barrier, making it a promising candidate for the treatment of neurological conditions, like depression, anxiety, and even Alzheimer’s disease.
Now, with the support of the SOPHIE program — a commercialization and scale-up catalyst funded by the Government of Canada, through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), and led by Innovation Factory and the Synapse Consortium — scientists at KC Bio and McMaster are working together to advance KCB-100 toward clinical development.
“This is a powerful example of how strategic investment in Canadian innovation can accelerate breakthrough science and deliver real health solutions,” says Evan Solomon, minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation and the minister responsible for FedDev Ontario.
“By supporting partnerships like those between McMaster University and KC Bio, we’re not only advancing drug discovery, we’re building a stronger, more resilient life sciences sector that benefits all Canadians.”
The new collaboration will focus on generating key behavioural and biomarker data, which will help guide the drug candidate down its path to clinical trials and eventual commercialization.
“This is exciting science,” Brown says. “For more than 25 years, researchers have been trying to develop drugs like this, without much success. But we have really strong data to show that our compound has the potential to reach the clinic.”
Brown says that if all goes well, KCB-100’s path from rainforest to human patients could help establish a clear discovery-to-development template that could be applied to any new drug candidates that emerge from the Mitacs-funded project.
Together, the two collaborations have brought nearly $400,000 in research funding to McMaster’s drug discovery ecosystem. These studies are taking place in Brown’s own lab, as well as in the laboratory of McMaster Professor Gerry Wright.