Celtarys WomenTech · Innovative chemistry to illuminate biology: a new chemical conjugation technology to optimize drug discovery

Drug discovery faces two key challenges: on one hand, the sector has been losing competitiveness due to an increase in development costs and a reduction in sales; and on the other hand, the new therapeutical targets that appear every year, in part thanks to the potential of personalized medicine, demand urgently new research tools to efficiently identify new drugs acting on them. Celtarys proprietary technology provides a solution to both challenges: it is a new and disruptive patented chemical conjugation methodology that allows a qualitative and quantitative leap in the development of fluorescent chemical tools required to optimize early phases of the drug discovery process, thus reducing the attrition rate in later clinical phases and therefore optimizing the efficiency of the process. At the same time, our technology makes possible to develop in a costly and timely competitive manner customized fluorescent tools for any target of interest, unlocking the potential of newly identified therapeutical targets. Our technology is an efficient and environmentally friendly Lego-like semicombinatorial conjugation strategy, accelerating the design and synthesis of fluorescent probes with optimal pharmacological and photophysical properties for any target with therapeutic interest, outperforming radioligands and other available fluorescent probes, thus improving the complex and costly drug discovery process. Celtarys is led by two women, both founders of the company: Maria Majellaro, Phd in Chemistry, inventor of the patent in which our technology is based and CSO; and Sonia Martínez Arca, PhD in Biology, with previous experience in entrepreneurship and CEO of the company. Celtarys has been founded in 2021 and has secured a seed investment round. We count already with products in the market and our first clients. Our priority for the short term is consolidate our market position and undertake a growth phase, for which we seek support from the Women TechEU program.