CircaSCOPE · Pre-commercialization of circadian clock-drug interactions screening tool for therapeutic applications

Circadian clocks carry an immense importance to human health, as clock disruption is related to various malignancies from sleep disorders through diabetes to cancer. Furthermore, many drug targets are influenced by circadian clocks. In order to maximize drugs efficacy while minimizing side effects, it is necessary to consider the drugs time-of-administration, also known as chronotherapy. These revelations are critical for drug administration and development. However, their practical implementation is tempered by the lack of suitable research tools that bridge the gap from the bench to the clinic. The time-dependent effect of an intervention on the clock is represented by the Phase Transition Curve (PTC). PTCs retrieval is laborious and challenging, consequently they were mostly overlooked in the pharmaceutical R&D process. In the ERC Project CIRCOMMUNICATION, we studied clock-resetting mechanisms, which led to the development of CircaSCOPE, an efficient high-throughput methodology for high-resolution PTC construction. CircaSCOPE can be used as a powerful screening method for clock-modulating drugs, either for the purpose of targeting pathologies associated with circadian disruption, or to identify drugs which elicit unwanted side-effects on the clock. Once fully developed and systematically integrated in chrono-medicine, CircaSCOPE has the potential to improve drug discovery and yield medicines with better therapeutic index.Here, we detail our plan for the first steps toward commercializing of our innovation. We will demonstrate the applicability of this approach through drug libraries screens and expand the repertoire of cell types that the system relies on. In addition, we will explore different commercialization strategies and interact with potential stakeholders and end-users. Given the medical importance of circadian effects, wed envisage that CircaSCOPE will become as a gold-standard procedure in future drugs development.