An excellent preclinical contract research organization and a biotechnology company: Gubra

Founded in 2008, Gubra is a privately-held biotech company with two primary areas of business: Pre-clinical contract research (CRO) services and proprietary early target and drug discovery programs. The company’s focus is the metabolic space (obesity, diabetes, NASH and diabetic complications) where it specializes in in vivo pharmacology, peptide chemistry, molecular pharmacology, histology, 3D imaging, stereology, NGS (next generation sequencing), bioinformatics and ex vivo assays. Gubra works with some of the most interesting and loyal partners and customers from across the world within big pharma, biotech and academia. Through a constant focus on high quality, scientific excellence, speed and solid teamwork, Gubra has established ourselves as a highly professional and competent partner in the market. Discovery of new therapeutic targets is essential to the development of new medicine. The identification of key disease-modifying targets lays the foundation for any successful drug discovery.

Gubra’s streaMLine preDict platform has a scientific and data driven approach and is designed to identify novel targets that are drugable, clinically efficacious and safe. Gubra’s in-house capabilities enable rapid validation of targets in clinical translatable in vivo models. Gubra’s preDict algorithm identifies and ranks targets based on unique in-house developed algorithms. Evaluation of clinical data is included to ensure human translatability of targets.

Machine Learning powered peptide target and drug discovery

Gubra’s streaMLine platform covers the full spectrum from generation of data to target identification and lead compound generation. The platform enables pioneering identification of new targets and evaluation of existing ones as well as rapid discovery of novel peptides against new or established targets. Several novel targets have already been identified using Gubra’s preDict platform. Gubra’s peptide drug discovery platform conClude delivers unprecedented rapid and unbiased synthesis and characterization of complex peptides.

Medicinal chemists and data scientists at Gubra have joined forces to develop a flexible pipeline for systematic and unbiased screening and development of novel peptide drugs. The platform relies on integrated state-of-the-art laboratory facilities for high-throughput data generation and Machine Learning algorithms trained to recognize drug hallmarks. The streaMLine conClude platform can optimize any peptide for early development.

NeuroPedia – a mouse brain atlas for virtual neuroscience

Quantitative 3D imaging using light sheet fluorescent microscopy is revolutionizing the way we look at pre-clinical endpoints and biodistribution. The imaging team at Gubra are at the forefront of this technological advancement. They came up with the idea of a shared site for virtual neuroscience and exploration of the mouse brain based on expression maps of whole mouse brains donated by laboratories across the world. They call it NeuroPedia. NeuroPedia is a database for virtual neuroscience. A place where scientists can look up and interact with 3D gene expression maps, neural activity maps and connectivity maps of the adult mouse brain. But also, a place where you can have your own favorite gene mapped and uploaded.

When conducting whole brain imaging using light-sheet microscopy, mapping the raw data to a brain template is a crucial step in order to extract quantitative information. However, once the data has been mapped into a template it is possible to compare it to other maps, not only from the same study, but also to previous studies or to maps generated in other labs. In theory all maps generated using the same template can be compared and overlayed with each other. From here the idea to NeuroPedia was relatively easy, because in essence NeuroPedia is just an interactive repository or an encyclopedia of brain maps that can be accessed and shared by everybody.

Ferring Pharmaceuticals and Gubra

Ferring Pharmaceuticals and Gubra entered into a collaboration agreement to further develop and characterize preclinical animal models of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The collaboration aims to advance Gubra’s early pipeline of targets in intestinal inflammation and fibrosis. Over the next year, Gubra will conduct studies to help us understand the onset and progression of disease in preclinical models of IBD and validate tool compounds. In addition, Ferring and Gubra will collaborate to develop and standardize methods to assess fibrosis in the intestine, focusing on histological features that are translatable to human disease.

“This collaboration highlights Ferring’s commitment to IBD and our ambition to develop better and more translatable models to support target validation”, says Bryan Fuchs, VP Gastroenterology, Global Drug Discovery & External Innovation. He adds: “Gubra is a recognized preclinical research organization with expertise in digital imaging and AI quantification of fibrosis, so they are uniquely suited to partner with us in this endeavor.”

CEO at Gubra, Henrik Blou, expresses “IBD is a growing part of Gubra’s disease focus, and we see this as an opportunity to make a difference, especially with a knowledgeable player like Ferring. We are thrilled with the collaboration and the possibility to unfold Gubra’s wide palette of advanced digital methods and technologies to assess and quantify histological features of inflammation and fibrosis. Together with our competent partners at Ferring, we look forward to creating strong preclinical models that translate well into the clinic.”

Henrik Blou, Chief Executive Officer

“Our ambition is that Gubra is a place where talented people are empowered to put their competencies and passion into play every day.”