We believe our discovery platform enables us to discover new drug candidates that selectively target SHIP1 to modulate activated immune cells while minimizing their toxicity to normal cells. Our discovery platform includes:

• a novel in vitro, high throughput assay to screen SHIP1 activators;
• a patented approach to screening drugs against the C2 binding domain;
• the use of the SHIP1 knockout mouse to produce cells for in vitro experiments or for in vivo studies to determine the selectivity and specificity of our compounds; and
• an extensive library of chemical compounds that are known to be SHIP1 activators.

Our discovery platform was initially applied to the screening of a natural product library of compounds to identify potential SHIP1 activators, which SHIP1 activators were covered by an exclusive license from the University of British Columbia. We chemically modified these initial compounds to improve on their activity and drug-like properties, which resulted in several SHIP1 activator compound classes being developed. From these compound classes, we developed a key understanding of the chemical structure characteristics of SHIP1 activators. With this understanding of what a SHIP1 activator structure should look like, we identified additional compound classes in other libraries of interest. We acquired one proprietary compound library of interest from Biolipox AB, with all patents transferred to us without any future royalty obligations. We screened compounds from this acquired library and confirmed that it contained SHIP1 activators, including a compound that was the basis for AQX-1125.