ALLOX aims to shape the future of medicine. The techbio company has just set up at the Barcelona Science Park and is emerging as one of the most promising startups in the Catalan biotechnology ecosystem. Its unique, systematic, and scalable technology promises to shed light on one of the most complex aspects of proteins, allosteric regulation, and open new opportunities to treat diseases, such as cancer, that have been difficult or impossible to address with conventional treatments.

Founded in 2023 by Júlia Domingo (CEO), André Faure (CDO), and Pablo Baeza (CSO) as a spin-off from the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) of Barcelona with the support of Asabys Partners and CDTI Innovation, ALLOX has created an innovative platform that combines experimental genetics, artificial intelligence, and energy models. Its goal is to turn what was once considered unreachable in medicine: identifying elusive allosteric sites and turning them into new therapeutic targets for developing more effective treatments.

The three researchers met while working together in the laboratory of ICREA professor Ben Lehner, who is also a co-founder and Chief Scientific Advisor of the company. From their experience in studying genetic mutations, they began analysing how small changes in DNA affect the functioning of proteins, from their production to their shape and their ability to interact with other proteins. The pivotal turn in their research came when they realised that the technology not only allowed identifying the protein-protein interaction binding site, but also the more distant regulatory regions, called allosteric sites, that act as remote controls, and their modification can change the behaviour of the protein without altering its main structure.

Allosteric modulators are one of the most promising frontiers in the development of innovative drugs. ALLOX’s long-term vision is to create the next generation of tools based on allosteric regulation, capable of predicting and designing new protein functions for the treatment of diseases such as cancer.

Read the Barcelona Science Park News article

The ALLOX team in their laboratory at the Barcelona Science Park. Image / PCB