Novel strategies to selectively target adipose tissue

Based on estimations by the World Health Organization, approximately 300 million people will be obese in 2035. With this, obesity presents a major health concern with increasing prevalence worldwide.

Therapies aiming at regulating food intake currently present the most effective medical treatment for obesity. However, as reduction of food intake is usually accompanied by reduced energy expenditure, efficacy of such approaches and in particular the potential for sustained weight loss is limited. Therefore, combinations with energy expenditure increasing mechanisms are urgently needed.

Exploiting the full therapeutic potential of energy expenditure mechanisms needs to incorporate adipose tissue specific mechanisms, as it presents a major tissue regulating energy metabolism. Pharmacological utilization of therapeutic targets within adipose tissue ultimately depends on tissue-selective drug delivery. Whereas progress was made in the past targeting liver via N-acetylgalactosamine (GalNAc)-conjugates and tissue specific cell surface receptor, no suitable surface proteins were identified that exclusively express in adipocytes. Based on the urgent need to incorporate energy expenditure mechanisms in the treatment of obesity, there is a high interest in identifying and characterizing novel approaches for a cell-type specific targeting of adipose tissue.

1. Any already identified adipose specific molecule-based approach to specifically target adipose tissue, demonstrating feasibility for drug-delivery purposes. Approaches should not yet be public or described in the context of obesity. Proposals demonstrating high degree of feasibility in relevant animal models and translatability to human systems are prioritized. Please only share non-confidential proposals with us as a first step.
2. The proposal needs to be highly feasible, should be based on established and existing methods, assays and involve tools or reagents that are either available or which can be easily produced. We expect that the project will be executed in your laboratory and takes advantage of existing technologies and assays.

Please note that any proposal ultimately inhibiting adipogenesis or ablating adipose tissue will not be considered.

Projects that are based on technologies that require first substantial establishment and validation (no previous hands-on experience) will be deprioritized.

We are open to all proposals that meet the requirements above.

If your project is selected, you will have the opportunity to directly collaborate with the Cardio Metabolic Diseases Research team of Boehringer Ingelheim. You can expect appropriate funding for the prospective collaboration period. The exact funding request should be outlined in your proposal. As a framework, we suggest that your initial funding request is structured in milestones and does not exceed 200,000 euros per submitted project in total.

The opportunity for a funded stay at Boehringer Ingelheim for technology exchange / training is potentially available, as is the availability of custom biological tools and reagents.

Our collaboration agreement will provide full transparency about each partner’s rights & obligations (including intellectual property rights). As part of the agreement you will be encouraged to publish following the collaboration agreement (to be negotiated in good faith).

To maintain the highest degree possible in an open innovation environment, we plan to announce the winner(s) publicly and feature them on opnMe.com and our social media channels. We would guide you through this process and as part of it we would kindly ask for your upfront consent, in case our scientific jury had selected your answer.

We are seeking research collaboration proposals that contain:

• A well-structured proposal outlining a new and compelling scientific approach.
• Outlining of the technical feasibility, and existing data or previous publications that support feasibility / experience with outlined technology, based on established techniques and assays.
• Your exact funding request should be outlined in your proposal based on a well-thought-through project. The project should be structured in milestones and planned with key decision points (clear Go/No-Go criteria). The funding request for the initial milestones resulting in a Go/No-Go decision should not exceed 200,000 euros per submitted project in total.
• Proven track record in the required field of expertise.
• Ability to implement the outlined solution as part of a scientific collaboration project with Boehringer Ingelheim including access to a laboratory.

Please use our answer submission template to provide a 2-3-page non-confidential proposal (available for download here).

If confidential data exists that would strengthen the proposal, please indicate that information is available to share under a Confidential Disclosure Agreement (CDA). If we find the non-confidential concept proposal sufficiently interesting, we will execute a CDA for confidential discussions.

We are currently seeking answers for the following scientific challenge: How would you propose to identify and verify novel approaches to specifically target adipose tissue for delivery of anti-obesity therapeutics?

All incoming answers accompanied by a collaboration proposal will be evaluated by a scientific jury, and, upon selection, chosen proposals are pursued through a joint collaboration with the successful applicants. Initial funding of up to 200,000 euros will be available for each selected proposal.