Bright Angel: New hope against fungal resistance

Bright Angel is tackling antifungal resistance at its root with inhibitors of Hsp90 and other stress response factors, unlike competitors that are developing compounds against known or new pathways where resistance can still emerge.

Resistance to the three approved classes of antifungal agents -- azoles, polyenes and echinocandins -- is a growing problem, yet most compounds in development tread the same biological pathways as those classes. According to Bright Angel Therapeutics Inc. co-founder and CSO Leah Cowen, fungal and human proteins, such as Hsp90, share a high degree of homology, raising the potential for toxicity that hampers the development of new targets. Cowen also is a professor of molecular genetics at the University of Toronto...