Biotechnology company Engitix Ltd said on Monday that it plans to identify ECM-related drug targets in fibrostenotic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) under a research collaboration with Morphic Therapeutic, a biopharmaceutical company.

Morphic will use Engitix's ECM platform to identify drug targets for potential future oral integrin drug candidates as treatments for fibrostenotic inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), an intestinal fibrosis complication that affects 30% of Crohn's Disease patients. IBD is characterised by chronic inflammation of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, with two main types: ulcerative colitis and Crohn's Disease.

Using its proprietary MInT technology platform that leverages the unique understanding of integrin structure and biology, Morphic said it aims to advance treatments for patients suffering from autoimmune, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, as well as fibrosis and cancer.

Pursuant to the collaboration, Engitix will apply its unique tissue-specific ECM platform to identify and characterise the expression of drug targets and cover integrin and non-integrin expression in fibrostenosis.

By incorporating human ECM, Engitix's in vitro models closely resemble the natural cell microenvironment and increase the probability that target identification can occur in a relevant and meaningful context.