News Blog
712 North Inc., a California-based pharmaceutical company, announced on January 13, 2022 publication of an overview article in Pharmacological Research with the title: ‘Recent advances in, and challenges of, designing OMA1 drug screens.’
712 North Inc. spearheads personalized mitochondrial medicines for individuals with Alzheimer’s and other aging-related diseases by developing OMA1 protease inhibitors. Dr. Alavi discusses the different approaches to develop OMA1 drug screens in this comprehensive review article and shares some of his insights into the biology. The publication can be accessed here: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1ePW33jJHqAdlH. For more information please visit: www.712north.com.
712 North Inc. announces publication of new study in ACS Chemical Biology.
712 North Inc., a California-based pharmaceutical company, announced on October 21, 2021 publication of a landmark study in ACS Chemical Biology with the title: ‘OMA1 High-Throughput Screen Reveals Protease Activation by Kinase Inhibitors.’
712 North develops personalized mitochondrial medicines that modulate the OMA1 protease, a key regulator at the intersection of energy metabolism and apoptotic cell death. The study introduces 712 North’s proprietary cellular OMA1 assay and summarizes the results from the first screening campaigns. The publication can be accessed here: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acschembio.1c00350
Dr. Alavi, 712 North’s CEO and sole author of the study says: “This is a landmark study. We are finding lots of interesting interactions in our drug screens.” And he continues to say: “OMA1 is a really challenging drug target. I am not aware of anyone who succeeded in drugged the proteases of the mitochondrial inner membrane. Our OMA1 assays thus can provide a roadmap also for the other proteases of the inner membrane, such as PARL and the AAA proteases.” The study was supported by the National Institute on Aging (NIA). For more information please visit: www.712north.com.
712 North Inc., a California-based pharmaceutical company, announced on August 13, 2021 publication of a pioneering study in BBA – Molecular Cell Research with the title: ‘Tau phosphorylation and OPA1 proteolysis are unrelated events: Implications for Alzheimer's Disease.’
712 North Inc. spearheads personalized mitochondrial medicines for individuals with Alzheimer’s and other aging-related diseases by developing OMA1 protease inhibitors. OMA1 is a key regulator of the OPA1 protein at the intersection of energy metabolism and apoptotic cell death. The study is a first step to decode deteriorating mitochondria in Alzheimer’s and focused on the functional interaction of tau with OPA1 and OMA1. The publication can be accessed here: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1deDTc5IDezxb
“I am happy to share my results with the research community,” says Dr. Alavi, 712 North’s CEO and principal investigator. “We know about mitochondrial impairments in Alzheimer’s dementia for a half century. It is about time to do something about it.” The study was supported by the National Institute on Aging (NIA). For more information please visit: www.712north.com.
712 North Inc. announces new publication in BBA – Proteins and Proteomics.
712 North Inc., a California-based pharmaceutical company, announced on October 29, 2020 publication of their conceptual study in BBA – Proteins and Proteomics with the title: ‘OMA1—An integral membrane protease?’
712 North Inc. focuses on the OMA1 protease for the development of personalized mitochondrial medicines for individuals with aging-related diseases, including Alzheimer’s and cancer. Dr. Alavi, 712 North’s CEO and principal investigator, presents an OMA1 homology model in this study, which suggests OMA1 actually is an integral membrane protease. “The prevailing opinion in the field is that OMA1 is anchored to the inner membrane,” says Dr. Alavi, and continuous, “This is quite a paradigm shift.” The study was supported by the National Institute on Aging (NIA). The publication can be accessed here: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1c6V85bCYARA-b. For more information please visit: www.712north.com.
712 North Inc. joins the QB3 Garage @ Berkeley.
712 North Inc. announced it has joined the QB3 Garage @ Berkeley in July 1, 2019. 712 North is an early-stage therapeutics company developing personalized mitochondrial medicines for patients with Alzheimer’s and other age-related diseases. Supported by a phase I SBIR grant from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), the team around the founder Dr. Marcel V. Alavi will pursue a discovery program together with the Small Molecule Discovery Center at UCSF. “Our new lab on the UC Berkeley campus is awesome because it is really close to all our collaborators at UCSF and the Molecular Foundry at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.” says Dr. Alavi. QB3 is a life science accelerator created in 2000 by the University of California to support innovation and entrepreneurship. QB3 offers incubator space at six different sites across the San Francisco Bay Area and at Santa Cruz. For more information please visit: www.712north.com.
NIA awards SBIR grant to 712 North Inc.
712 North Inc. announced today that the National Institute on Aging (NIA) awarded a Small Business Research Innovation (SBIR) grant to 712 North Inc. starting in April 2019. The phase I SBIR grant will fund the discovery and validation of small molecule OMA1 inhibitors. OMA1 is a critical mitochondrial protease whose activity correlates with mitochondrial distress and apoptosis, aka programmed cell death. 712 North’s CEO Dr. Marcel V. Alavi is the Principal Investigator on the SBIR grant. He shared, “I was so excited when I received the funding notice. This is huge!" Dr. Alavi continues to say, "The NIA has confidence in 712 North. And we will do everything within our power to make this SBIR project a success story.”
The NIA is one of the 27 Institutes and Centers of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The NIA leads a broad scientific effort to understand the nature of aging and to extend the healthy, active years of life.
712 North is an early-stage therapeutics company developing personalized mitochondrial medicines for patients with Alzheimer’s Disease and other age-related diseases. For more information please visit: www.712north.com.
712 North Inc. publishes a Mini Review with the title ‘Targeted OMA1 therapies for cancer’ in the International Journal of Cancer.
712 North Inc., an R&D-stage pharmaceutical company, announced on February 4, 2019 publication of an overview article in the International Journal of Cancer with the title: ‘Targeted OMA1 therapies for cancer.’ The article argues that the OMA1 mechanism of action represents the missing link between p53 and cytochrome c release. For more information please visit: www.712north.com.