USC has embarked on a collaboration with Autobahn Labs, an accelerator for early-stage drug discovery, to identify and advance cutting-edge scientific findings into new therapies – with a special focus on critical unmet medical needs.

“Our collaboration with Autobahn Labs is a pivotal moment for our institution’s mission to bring academic innovations in drug discovery to market,” said Erin Overstreet, PhD, executive director of the USC Stevens Center for Innovation, which manages a broad portfolio of university-owned intellectual property. “By leveraging USC’s scientific expertise and Autobahn’s drug discovery capabilities, we are accelerating the development of novel therapeutics that address critical medical needs and improve patient outcomes,” she said.

Autobahn Labs, founded in 2019, partners with leading research institutions to accelerate the advancement of novel science into transformational therapies. They invest intellectual and financial capital, applying a proven framework to efficiently move projects from hypothesis to drug candidates. As part of the agreement with USC, Autobahn will invest up to $5 million per selected project to support the development of new pharmaceuticals.

MESH Strategic Partnerships at the Keck School of Medicine of USC will support the collaboration by serving as the central point of contact, facilitating connections between researchers, and ensuring rigorous project review. MESH, a specialized service that focuses on building and sustaining relationships between USC and industry groups, also supports the Rosalie and Harold Rae Brown Center for Cancer Drug Development at USC Norris, which prepares projects to reach key development milestones, positioning them for engagement with collaborators like Autobahn Labs.

Together, USC and Autobahn Labs aim to identify promising early-stage scientific findings and transform them into therapies for conditions with significant unmet needs, from cancer to cardiovascular disease. Selected proposals will receive funding to advance and de-risk novel drug discovery programs, leveraging state-of-the-art technology to drive these projects forward to the clinic.

Read more about this collaboration in the full article written by Zara Adams at Keck School of Medicine.