COMMITTED TO EXCELLENCE IN INNOVATION
A pioneer in the field, ConfometRx is a leader in G protein coupled receptor (GPCR) structural characterization and analysis and GPCR-targeted drug discovery.
Our comprehensive approach harnesses more than 10 years of experience elucidating the structures of GPCRs to discover and develop targeted small molecules with therapeutic potential.
Our use of proprietary protein engineering methods and G proteins to express, purify, and stabilize GPCRs in both inactive and active states have enabled the structural elucidation of GPCRs by X-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy.
We have used both in silico screening and screening of DNA-encoded small molecule libraries to discover orthosteric agonists and antagonists, as well as both positive and negative allosteric modulators.
We are currently advancing several small-molecule candidates through lead optimization and pre-clinical development against GPCR targets involved in CNS, respiratory, metabolic, and other diseases. We have also contributed to drug discovery programs in collaboration with several pharmaceutical partners.
ConfometRx Research Foundation is a public non-profit foundation founded by Brian and Tong Sun Kobilka in 2009. The goal of the foundation is to bring together scientists from academia and the biopharmaceutical industry to exchange ideas, disseminate information, and discuss challenges related to drug development targeting G-protein coupled receptors in order to facilitate the discovery of more effective and selective therapeutics for unmet medical needs.
Company Founders
Brian Kobilka, M.D.
Dr. Kobilka is a co-founder of ConfometRx and current serves as a scientific advisor to the company. He is Professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology, and Hélène Irwin Fagan Chair in Cardiology at Stanford University School of Medicine. Over the past 30 years, he has pioneered the use of biophysical methods to study the structure and mechanism of activation of G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). In 2012, Dr. Kobilka was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on GPCRs, having been the first to obtain a high-resolution crystal structure of a non-rhodopsin GPCR and a GPCR-G protein complex. In addition to his advisory role at ConfometRx, he has served as a member of the scientific advisory boards of Acadia Pharmaceuticals, Theravance, 7TM Pharma, and BigHat Biosciences. Dr. Kobilka received a BS in Biology and Chemistry from the University of Minnesota, Duluth and his MD from Yale University School of Medicine. He completed residency training in Internal Medicine at the Barnes Hospital, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri and then was a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Robert Lefkowitz at Duke University. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Tong Sun Kobilka, M.D.
Dr. Kobilka is a co-founder of ConfometRx and has served as the company’s Chief Executive Officer since its founding. Previously, she was a practicing physician and a research scientist in the Kobilka academic lab at Stanford University. She has extensive research experience in GPCRs including the cloning of several GPCRs, structure/function analysis of the β2 adrenergic receptor, and purification of GPCRs for crystallography. Dr. Kobilka received a BS degree in Biology from the University of Minnesota, two Masters degrees – one in Microbiology from Iowa State University and the other in East Asian Studies from Yale University, and her MD from Stanford University.
Advisors
Stephen Brenner, Ph.D.
Dr. Brenner has served as a scientific advisor to ConfometRx since 2013. He is currently a member of the Therapeutic Development Team at the Harrington Discovery Institute and an independent consultant with more than 40 years of experience in academia, government, and the private sector.
After receiving his Ph.D. in Chemical Physics from Indiana University, he then spent ten years at the National Institutes of Health as a research scientist. Dr. Brenner then joined the Central Research Department of the DuPont Company, where he held positions of increasing responsibility, leading research teams in Structural Biology and Biophysics.
Following the acquisition of DuPont by Bristol-Myers Squibb in 2001, Dr. Brenner rose through the executive ranks to the position of Vice President of Chemical and Protein Technologies, leading a diverse department that provided core support for both small- and large-molecule drug discovery. He was also a member of the Joint Research Committee for numerous BMS academic and industrial alliances, and actively involved in the creation of the BMS-Biocon Research Center in Bangalore, India, and the BMS-Tsinghua University Structural Biology alliance in Beijing, China.
During his career, he also served as a member of the Keystone Symposia Scientific Advisory Board for nearly 20 years and was Chair of the Directorate Advisory Committee for the Fundamental and Computational Sciences Directorate at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
Todd Ewing, Ph.D.
Todd consults as a computational chemist to help design new medicines. He has 25 years of drug discovery experience collaborating on project teams and patenting novel chemical matter at ConfometRx, Septerna, Maze, Cytokinetics, Plexxikon, Neurocrine, ArQule, and Camitro.
He received his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of California San Francisco working with Irwin Kuntz on automated molecular docking. He received his BS in Chemical Engineering at the University of Washington Seattle working with Terry Lybrand on free energy perturbation and solvation.
Todd’s interests include structure-based design, ligand-based design, computer-aided drug design, machine learning, lead optimization, drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics.
Mike Bishop, Ph.D.
Mike Bishop started Bishop Drug Discovery Consulting LLC in San Diego in 2019 after 26 years as a medicinal chemist with the pharmaceutical company, GSK. As a consultant, Mike mainly supports small biotechs in their quest for new medicines across multiple therapeutic areas.
With GSK, from 2001 to 2014, he directed a department of medicinal chemists and DMPK scientists with a focus on metabolic diseases, with the team identifying ~10 clinical development candidates. From 2014 to 2019, Mike served as a Director in GSK’s Discovery Partnerships with Academia (DPAc) unit, with responsibilities for vetting of research opportunities, building collaborative workplans and leading joint drug discovery research programs with academic investigators. Mike’s passion is to work with expert teams and motivated entrepreneurs and use his expertise to drive therapeutic ideas to meaningful medicines.
Mike earned a B.A. in chemistry from Rice University in Houston, TX, worked in the petrochemical industry with Amoco Chemical in Texas City, TX for two years, and then returned to Rice, earning a Ph.D. in organic chemistry.
Jim Zanze
Jim has 32 years of life science corporate finance experience. He joined life science investment banking firm Aquilo Partners in 2003. Prior to that, Jim spent 11 years with JPMorgan and Hambrecht & Quist, where he was Managing Director and Head of Private Placements. Jim began his career at Salomon Brothers Inc in the Venture Capital Group. He has served as a director of the California Pacific Medical Center and chaired the investment committee overseeing its endowment. Jim graduated from Middlebury College.
