Cutting-Edge Science
Focused on the Fight
Against Fibrosis
Pliant is on a quest to break new ground in fibrosis treatment through innovative scientific discovery. Applying our extensive expertise in integrin and fibrosis biology, we have our sights set on creating groundbreaking new therapies for fibrosis and fibrosis-related diseases.
Our Path
Fibrosis is caused when cells that normally repair tissue through scar formation become dysregulated, or out of control. This dysregulation causes the cells to create and deposit excessive collagen in the affected organs, a process known as fibrosis. Fibrosis replaces healthy tissue with scar tissue in vital organs, causing irreparable damage and eventual organ failure.
Our Approach
Our initial focus is on treating fibrosis by inhibiting integrin-mediated activation of transforming growth factor beta, or TGF-β, a key driver in fibrosis. Integrins are cell surface proteins that are normally expressed at very low levels, but in certain fibrotic diseases have been shown to be upregulated and to cause the continuous activation of TGF-ß. Pliant has applied its deep understanding of fibrosis biology, medicinal chemistry and translational medicine expertise to develop a set of proprietary tools to discover candidates to inhibit this pathway.
Our Platform
Pliant has developed an industry-leading proprietary platform to probe the molecular drivers of disease. This platform enables the screening of newly identified targets to create a deep well of potential drug candidates.
Our platform consists of a proprietary library of over 15,000 integrin binding molecules, a comprehensive screening assay system (binding, integrin confirmation, ligand-induced internalization) and an industry-leading live human tissue program. We believe our platform may be broadly applicable across multiple disease areas including delivery of drug payloads to cells utilizing integrin receptor-binding molecules as tissue-specific delivery and internalization mechanisms.
Our Publications
Our team has unmatched expertise in fibrosis and integrin biology, and we value sharing our knowledge. We regularly publish and present our research in a variety of forums to advance the discovery of novel targeted therapies to finish fibrosis. Read our publications.
