Enodia creatively degrades proteins

In the world of protein degradation, sometimes a spanner in the works isn’t an inconvenience but the desired result. Paris-based Enodia Therapeutics has launched out of France’s Pasteur Institute and the Argobio Studio to design small molecules that strategically throw a wrench in the processing of undesired proteins. Protein synthesis involves multiple steps that scientists can target to get rid of unwanted proteins. Enodia focuses on one of the earlier steps. After proteins are created by a ribosome, the next step is processing by the endoplasmic reticulum. The gateway to the endoplasmic reticulum is the Sec61 translocon, a channel that recognizes proteins and grants them entry. Enodia’s scientific cofounder, Caroline Demangel, identified this channel as a possible therapeutic target for cancer; she was inspired by the naturally occurring bacterial toxin mycolactone, which blocks Sec61 —and thus most proteins—from getting into the endoplasmic reticulum ( EMBO Mol. Med. 2022, DOI: 10.15252