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Targeted protein degradation has moved from elegant academic concept to one of the most closely watched frontiers in oncology, promising to drug the 80% of disease‑driving proteins that traditional inhibitors and even ADCs still struggle to reach. In this episode of BioBiz Buzz, host Mike Ward sits down with Proxygen founder and scientific advisor Georg Winter and CSO Chiara Conti to unpack how induced proximity, molecular glue degraders and ligase choice are reshaping the precision oncology toolbox.
Georg explains why molecular glue degraders, rather than classic PROTACs, are at the centre of Proxygen’s strategy, highlighting their smaller size, oral and CNS potential, and ability to exploit “physiological” ligases to boost potency without paying the usual toxicity price. Chiara shares how Proxygen has used a ligase‑agnostic, AI‑enabled discovery engine to build a capital‑efficient platform, move beyond the “usual suspect” ligases, and select its first two oncology development candidates, including programmes designed with brain metastases and differentiation versus inhibitors in mind.
Together, they explore induced proximity beyond degradation, from using surface proteins as flags to recruit alternative effectors, to rethinking how AI, molecular dynamics and focused glue libraries can accelerate discovery in this three‑body problem. Along the way, Georg and Chiara reflect on the company’s unconventional funding path, the cultural balance between academic rigour and development speed, and what success will look like five years from now as Proxygen and its partners work to bring this next wave of cancer therapies into the clinic.
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