Company PreHistory
In 2008 Anja van de Stolpe and Wim Verhaegh initiated their own “Friday afternoon” project at Philips Research at the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven (the Netherlands). Historically Philips researchers have been allowed to use the Friday afternoon for exploration of their own ideas. The aim of their new project was to develop tests that could predict response to cancer therapy in patients with all types of cancer. The tests should measure activity of the cellular processes called Signal Transduction Pathways (STP), which were known to drive cancer growth and metastasis. Many new “targeted” treatments aim at blocking activity of these pathways, but it generally remains unclear which patients respond to a specific treatment.
The conceptual idea was to measure the direct “output” of an active signal transduction pathway, that is, the production (transcription) of pathway-specific mRNA molecules from target genes of the pathway-associated transcription factor, using an Artificial Intelligence approach in the form of a knowledge-based (Bayesian network-based) probabilistic computational model. High target gene mRNA levels were hypothesized to indicate an active signal transduction pathway, low levels an inactive pathway. Bringing together their very different individual expertises (biological/clinical/mathematical) they decided to start with the Wnt pathway. The reason for choosing this initial pathway was that the world expert on the Wnt pathway, Hans Clevers (at the time director of the Hubrecht Institute in The Netherlands), offered both a list with target genes and data for the necessary calibration of the computational model. After showing that the developed model could correctly measure activity of the Wnt pathway in different cell types, the project was promoted to an “official” project outside Friday afternoons and the team expanded. More pathway models followed, patents were filed and granted, and publications written. Preclinical and clinical oncology collaborations ensued, worldwide. Within Philips Research a diagnostic venture was started based on the new signaling pathway analysis technology, called Molecular Pathway Diagnostics (MPDx).
In the meantime, STP research continued to be funded by Philips Research and Philips Intellectual Property (IP&S). Based on the realization that these signal transduction pathways not only control the growth of cancer, but also determine the function of healthy cells and are fundamentally important in other diseases, the role of signal transduction pathways in over 150 diseases was unraveled. Finally the value for drug development was successfully explored, complementing the steadily growing number of patents with a drug development patent on potential new treatments for sepsis.
14 years after starting the project, Philips decided that it was time to spin out. In March 2022 the diagnostics company InnoSign Bio spun out of Philips as a diagnostic US company with R&D facility in the Netherlands. Philips withheld a license on the technology for therapy development which was transferred on December 29 2022 to Koraal Tx, the IP holding company of DCDC Tx.
The rest is History…
Founding Metamorphosis Tx
December 20, 2023. Metamorphosis Tx has been founded as a subsidiary of DCDC Tx. Metamorphosis is dedicated to development of cancer differentiation therapy.
BioDetection Systems (BDS) is co-founder of Metamorphosis. Both companies make their proprietary technologies available to Metamorphosis. The proprietary CALUX reporter cell line technology of BDS complements the signal transduction pathway modeling technology (now called: STAP-STP or Simultaneous Transcriptome-based Activity Profile-STP technology) of DCDC-Tx. This enables Metamorphosis to develop cancer differentiation therapies based on new drug development and drug repurposing.
Academic embedding
For peer-reviewed articles and books, see publications
The number of academic collaborations is growing continuously, also contributing to the (informal and ‘on demand’) scientific advisory board.
Nine PhD students already used the STAP-STP technology in peer-reviewed publications for their PhD thesis (Universities of Leiden, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Nijmegen, Maastricht).
Currently 2 new PhD students are using the STAP-STP technology for their thesis.
Writing grant proposals with expert academic partners to obtain public-private financing is one of the financing strategies of DCDC Tx for complex diseases with a high medical need. This has already resulted in two approved grants for development of therapy for Post COVID patients:
- December 2023: Characterization of aberrant cellular immune response in post-COVID,using innovative Signal Transduction Pathway technology (Zon-Mw funding round: Diagnostiek en behandeling van post-COVID). Collaboration with ErasmusMC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
- February 2024: Preclinical and early clinical drug repurposing therapy development based on biological rationale, Post-COVID Network Netherlands (ZonMw funding round: Onderzoeks- en expertisenetwerk post-COVID). Collaboration with Amsterdam UMC and ErasmusMC.
Founder team
Founder and acting CEO: Frans Bos, PhD Physics, LLM
Extensive managerial experience at Executive level in a broad portfolio of fields.
founder and CSO (Chief Scientific Officer): Anja van de Stolpe
Dr. Anja van de Stolpe is an internist with clinical, translational, preclinical drug repurposing, and entrepreneurial experience. PhD degree in cell and molecular biology at the Hubrecht Institute (Utrecht, The Netherlands), post-doc at Stanford University.
She is an inventor on a large number of patents, including the STP portfolio.
For publications, see Selected Publications and ResearchGate. For CV details, see LinkedIn.
Founder and CMO (Chief Medical Officer): Reinier Raymakers
Dr Reinier Raymakers is a clinical hematologist, with focus on hemato-oncology, with extensive translational research (11 PhD theses), and clinical drug development experience.
PhD degree on Autologous Bone Marrow Transplantation for malignancies, post-doc at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (Buffalo, NY) and University Medical Center Leiden (The Netherlands). Clinical staff member at the academic hematology department UMC Radboud and UMC Utrecht. For publications, see Selected Publications and ResearchGate. For CV details, see LinkedIn.
Founder and Chief Legal Officer: Jan Karel van der Staay, LLM
Former General Counsel. Extensive governance, legal and M&A experience at Board level. For CV details, see LinkedIn.
BUSINESS ADVISER: MARC RENNE
Marc Renne studied Business Economics in Rotterdam and INSEAD in Fontainebleau. Marc joined Nimbus in 2001 as partner and co-founder, focused at turnaround management; extensive commercial and financial expertise. For CV details, see Linkedin.
Advisory board
DCDC Tx (and its subsidiary Metamorphosis Tx) has an informal (‘on-demand’) international clinical and scientific advisory board, providing state-of-the-art relevant expertise.