Hypothesis-driven drug reprofiling based on a novel systems biology approach

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Fredric S. Young, fyoung@vicustherapeutics.com, Vicus Therapeutics, LLC, 55 Madison Avenue, Suite 400, Morristown, NJ 07960
We have developed a hypothesis driven drug re-profiling approach to create a pipeline of product candidates in pre-clinical and clinical development. We identify combination therapies of marketed drugs that target reaction blocks associated with the central disease causing processes. We identify the central processes through use of a pattern classifier of homeostasis and pathology. The pattern classifier is derived from the set of flux invariants associated with a self-organized control state of an absorbing state phase transition with multiple fluxes and multiple compartments. In our systems biology approach, biological systems are modeled using an object process methodology with a top down control analysis based on a universal flux control module. The role of specific genes, proteins and drug targets are defined as a function of their place in the hierarchical network of flux modules that carry out specific disease causing processes.