CASE STUDY
Monte Rosa Therapeutics
Using Torx to coordinate synthetic chemistry efforts with CRO partners, and push synthesis information directly into the CDD Vault registration system
The Company
Monte Rosa Therapeutics is a biotechnology company developing a portfolio of novel molecular glue degraders. These small molecules are designed to employ the body’s natural mechanisms to selectively degrade therapeutically relevant proteins.
The company’s drug discovery platform combines diverse and proprietary chemical libraries of molecular glue degraders with in-house proteomics, structural biology, AI/machine learning-based target selection and computational chemistry capabilities to predict and obtain protein degradation profiles. Monte Rosa is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, with research operations in both Boston and Basel, Switzerland.
The Challenge
Common amongst many growing biotech companies, Monte Rosa Therapeutics augments its in-house chemistry capabilities with external synthetic chemistry capabilities.
While this enables Monte Rosa to significantly increase their work capacity and resourcing flexibility, it also brings the challenge of coordinating work between multiple sites.
Andreas Ritzén, Associate Director of Chemistry at Monte Rosa, recalls “it was both difficult and time consuming to keep track of what compounds were being made and there wasn’t one place to look for a snapshot of our compounds.”
The Solution
Monte Rosa chemists sought an electronic tool to track and manage compound synthesis. They were aware that such tools were becoming increasingly popular in the biopharmaceutical industry and had heard about the Torx® platform.
An initial demo of Torx Make was arranged and well received. The next step was to conduct a hands-on evaluation. Thanks to responsive feedback throughout, the Torx team were able to tailor their Torx Make tool such that, at the end of a one-month evaluation, it was fully configured to meet Monte Rosa’s synthetic chemistry workflow needs. Torx Make was successfully rolled out within Monte Rosa.
Initial Results
According to Andreas, “Torx Make has enabled Monte Rosa to co-ordinate all synthetic chemistry in its drug discovery process. The visual status board provides clarity and ensures everyone is on the same page when it comes to priorities and knowing what needs to be made when.
Our CRO partners update the status of their work directly into Torx Make and add comments if needed, which not only means we always have up to date information but also facilitates communication during weekly meetings and mitigates potential issues with language differences. The information managed by Torx Make has provided us with a huge improvement in our ease of tracking and overall time saving.
Continuous Improvement
Shortly after rolling out Torx Make, Andreas wanted to streamline the Monte Rosa workflow further for increased time saving and greater efficiency. He wanted Torx design and synthesis information to be pushed directly into the Monte Rosa registration system and trigger compound registration. Following a simple requirements discussion with the Torx Team, and concept testing in a sandbox project, integration with in-house databases in line with the Monte Rosa registration requirements was efficiently implemented.
Torx Make has immediately become integral to Monte Rosa’s informatics ecosystem and is fundamental to the way that chemists work. The integration with in-house databases has provided additional efficiencies for our CRO partners and Monte Rosa chemists, removing manual registration steps. Torx Make readily scales with our expanding requirement to leverage more externalized chemistry.
Bernhard Fasching, Vice President, Chemistry at Monte Rosa Therapeutics