Berg Pharma Presents Key Findings in Cancer Systems Biology and Mitochondrial Metabolism at AACR Meeting

CHICAGO, April 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Berg Pharma, a Boston based pharmaceutical company presented novel data today pertaining to key insights into cancer cell metabolism at the 103rd Annual AACR meeting.  The company had a total of 5 presentations at the meeting that dealt with endothelial cell biology relative to tumor angiogenesis, mitochondrial flux in cancer cells for priming of cancer therapy, synergy of BPM 31510, Berg's lead oncology drug in development with gemcitabine, and use of Interrogative Biology® for cancer systems biology. BPM 31510 is now in Phase I trials for advanced, refractory solid tumors and the company plans to commence Phase III trials with the topical form of the technology for squamous cell carcinoma this year.

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Seth Corey, MD, Director of the Center for Drug Development at Children's Memorial Research Center and the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern University called the systems biology approach, "most revolutionary technology in medicine today." He added, "given what we know of tumor heterogeneity and complexity, the systems approach and cancer metabolism as the target together offer the surest path to more effective therapies."

The research team employed the Interrogative Biology® discovery platform which takes an agnostic approach to biological modeling where systems models with disease-relevant perturbations and microenvironments are subjected to AI-Bayesian algorithms.  The generated output then teases out disease-normal nodal signatures which reflect pathological pressure points.  These are then used to identify and validate biomarkers and therapeutic targets to expedite the drug development process. This novel approach from the Berg Interrogative Biology^® technology platform will serve as a key tool for discovery of kinases that are hitherto uncharacterized and drive cancer pathophysiology." said Vivek Vishnudas, Director of Scientific Affairs. 

Berg Pharma has a strong commitment to translational research from bed to bedside and has positioned its strengths in understanding how alternations and dysregulation in mitochondrial metabolism such as the Warburg effect, oxidation, stress, and inflammation lead to disease phenotypes such as cancer, diabetes, and CNS diseases.  "Berg is poised to embrace the challenges of these disease processes by utilizing cutting-edge technologies and non-obvious output from our platforms to reduce the bio-intelligence gathered into viable therapeutics and astute diagnostics, said Niven R. Narain, Co-Founder, President & CTO of Berg Pharma.

The core principles of the platform involves integration of "multi-omics" read out including kinase activity profiles, changes in phospho-proteomes and global changes in protein expression followed by inference of causal interactions between molecular entities mentioned above using Bayesian algorithms.  Ranga Sarangarajan, Sr. VP and CSO said, "unbiased identification and validation using these network biology approaches has translated into a robust therapeutic pipeline in diseases affected by altered mitochondrial metabolism."

About Berg Pharma

Berg Pharma is a Boston based pharmaceutical company and parent company to Berg Biosystems and Berg Diagnostics. Our research focus seeks to understand how alterations in metabolism relate to disease onset.  We have uncovered key insight into metabolic control factors and namely into underlying elements in the Warburg Hypothesis. The company has a deep pipeline of early-stage technologies in CNS diseases and metabolic diseases that complement its late-stage clinical trial activity in cancer and prevention of chemotoxicity. Armed with use of the discovery platform that translates biological output into viable therapeutics and a robust biomarker library, Berg Pharma is poised to realize its pursuit of a healthier tomorrow.