Padlock's keys to academia

Padlock Therapeutics Inc. isn't using its $23 million from a recent series A round to build research in-house or through a network of CROs. Instead, it's turning to academia to build the biology around its core platform of PAD inhibitors - an autoimmune target that is widely known, but poorly understood.

Earlier this month, the start-up announced three new partnerships with groups at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, The Scripps Research Institute and NIH. The goal is for the researchers to study the activity and safety of Padlock's PAD inhibitors, which the company hopes will become first-in-class compounds for autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and lupus. ...