{"id":215,"date":"2023-10-31T20:12:36","date_gmt":"2023-10-31T20:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thermofisher.com\/blog\/biotechnology\/?p=215"},"modified":"2023-11-20T20:54:50","modified_gmt":"2023-11-20T20:54:50","slug":"turning-junk-dna-into-medicine-with-haya-therapeutics-human-genome-and-fibrosis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thermofisher.com\/blog\/biotechnology\/turning-junk-dna-into-medicine-with-haya-therapeutics-human-genome-and-fibrosis\/","title":{"rendered":"Turning Junk DNA into Medicine with HAYA Therapeutics: Human Genome and Fibrosis"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"http:\/\/admin.acceleratingscience.com\/biotechnology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2023\/09\/Screenshot-2023-09-01-at-2.20.32-PM-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-127\" srcset=\"https:\/\/admin.acceleratingscience.com\/biotechnology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2023\/09\/Screenshot-2023-09-01-at-2.20.32-PM-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/admin.acceleratingscience.com\/biotechnology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2023\/09\/Screenshot-2023-09-01-at-2.20.32-PM-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/admin.acceleratingscience.com\/biotechnology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2023\/09\/Screenshot-2023-09-01-at-2.20.32-PM-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/admin.acceleratingscience.com\/biotechnology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2023\/09\/Screenshot-2023-09-01-at-2.20.32-PM-1536x863.png 1536w, https:\/\/admin.acceleratingscience.com\/biotechnology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2023\/09\/Screenshot-2023-09-01-at-2.20.32-PM-2048x1151.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s a longstanding truism to the point of getting called the \u201ccentral dogma of molecular biology\u201d: DNA makes RNA, RNA makes protein. It is also a severely outdated notion, first via the discovery of \u201cjunk DNA\u201d that does not code for protein, then via learning that a great deal of that \u201cjunk\u201d is actually regulatory elements that alter gene expression or tinker with other biochemical processes. It is in these often-mysterious parts of the genome that Samir Ounzain, founder and co-CEO of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hayatx.com\/\">HAYA Therapeutics<\/a>, hopes to find the future of medical <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thermofisher.com\/ca\/en\/home\/biotech.html\">biotechnology<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div id='buzzsprout-large-player-477406'><\/div><script type='text\/javascript' charset='utf-8' src='https:\/\/www.buzzsprout.com\/2132265\/12226267.js?container id=buzzsprout-large-player-477406&#038;player=large'><\/script>\n\n\n\n<p>HAYA Therapeutics hopes, first and foremost, to create some alternative treatments for tissue fibrosis. Most tissues in the body are full of fibroblasts, which create scar tissue when activated. This aspect of normal tissue healing can become pathological very easily and is implicated in numerous kinds of organ failure. Heart failure and its associated fibrosis is one of the foremost causes of death in the developed world. Unfortunately, current treatments are harsh and not particularly effective. As Ounzain observes, \u201cThe same proteins are in fibroblasts all over the body and in multiple cell types all over the body. So, when you develop a, to say a small molecule or a protein-based approach\u2026you may have an anti-fibrotic effect in the tissue you care about, but typically you have an off-target effect wherever that protein is expressed in multiple other tissues, which results in unbearable toxicology profiles and essentially not very safe medicines.\u201d Recent advances in RNA-based drugs, including recent SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, give Ounzain and HAYA Therapeutics hope that the new fibrosis drugs they develop can be far more targeted, zeroing in on genetic and epigenetic signatures in specific tissues to shut down fibrosis before it becomes pathological without affecting it elsewhere in the body. If HAYA can achieve this, it will make a difference in the lives of millions of people around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two factors pointed Ounzain at targeting tissue fibrosis via the regulatory processes that control gene expression: his family\u2019s personal history with heart disease, and <em>Jurassic Park. <\/em>Like many biologists of his generation, Ounzain was inspired by the sheer science-fiction potential of genetic science after watching <em>Jurassic Park <\/em>and its treatment of the basics of genetic engineering. This brought him into the field at the exact moment that the science of \u201cjunk DNA\u201d was taking shape and his doctoral research was part of that advancement. The progress since then has been exponential; in Samir\u2019s own words, \u201cI asked my students, \u2018Can you guess on what are the three genetic switches that control this gene?\u2019 They did that in five minutes using all these epigenomic databases. And then I said to them, \u2018By the way, it took me four years during my Ph.D. to answer that question.\u2019\u201d These advancements made clear to Ounzain that it was time to start developing medication based on the various processes that regulate gene expression, and that the chronic, fibrotic diseases that had harmed his family were the right target for his efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Samir Ounzain has more thoughts on his path to HAYA Therapeutics and the future of medicine that explores what was once considered the detritus of the human genome. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thermofisher.com\/ca\/en\/home\/biotech-lab-solutions\/biotech-learning-center\/biotech-innovators.html\">Listen to our podcast<\/a> to hear more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s a longstanding truism to the point of getting called the \u201ccentral dogma of molecular biology\u201d: DNA makes RNA, RNA makes protein. It is also a severely outdated notion, first via the discovery of \u201cjunk DNA\u201d that does not code for protein, then via learning that a great deal of that \u201cjunk\u201d is actually regulatory<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1735,"featured_media":216,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"division":[21],"class_list":{"0":"post-215","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-research-and-discovery","8":"division-bid","9":"entry"},"_selected_authors":"","_selected_reviewers":"","acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.8 (Yoast SEO v27.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Turning Junk DNA into Medicine with HAYA Therapeutics: Human Genome and Fibrosis - Biotech at Scale<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thermofisher.com\/blog\/biotechnology\/turning-junk-dna-into-medicine-with-haya-therapeutics-human-genome-and-fibrosis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Turning Junk DNA into Medicine with HAYA Therapeutics: Human Genome and Fibrosis\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It\u2019s a longstanding truism to the point of getting called the \u201ccentral dogma of molecular biology\u201d: DNA makes RNA, RNA makes protein. It is also a severely outdated notion, first via the discovery of \u201cjunk DNA\u201d that does not code for protein, then via learning that a great deal of that \u201cjunk\u201d is actually regulatory\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thermofisher.com\/blog\/biotechnology\/turning-junk-dna-into-medicine-with-haya-therapeutics-human-genome-and-fibrosis\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Biotech at Scale\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/thermofisher\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-10-31T20:12:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-11-20T20:54:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/admin.acceleratingscience.com\/biotechnology\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2023\/10\/Samir-Ounzain.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1564\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1310\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kaitlin Weller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@thermofisher\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@thermofisher\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kaitlin Weller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thermofisher.com\\\/blog\\\/biotechnology\\\/turning-junk-dna-into-medicine-with-haya-therapeutics-human-genome-and-fibrosis\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thermofisher.com\\\/blog\\\/biotechnology\\\/turning-junk-dna-into-medicine-with-haya-therapeutics-human-genome-and-fibrosis\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kaitlin Weller\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/admin.acceleratingscience.com\\\/biotechnology\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8f92468cfc8fb008ef11f473c8375809\"},\"headline\":\"Turning Junk DNA into Medicine with HAYA Therapeutics: Human Genome and Fibrosis\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-31T20:12:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-20T20:54:50+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thermofisher.com\\\/blog\\\/biotechnology\\\/turning-junk-dna-into-medicine-with-haya-therapeutics-human-genome-and-fibrosis\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":553,\"commentCount\":1,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thermofisher.com\\\/blog\\\/biotechnology\\\/turning-junk-dna-into-medicine-with-haya-therapeutics-human-genome-and-fibrosis\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/admin.acceleratingscience.com\\\/biotechnology\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/24\\\/2023\\\/10\\\/Samir-Ounzain.png\",\"articleSection\":[\"Research and discovery\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thermofisher.com\\\/blog\\\/biotechnology\\\/turning-junk-dna-into-medicine-with-haya-therapeutics-human-genome-and-fibrosis\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thermofisher.com\\\/blog\\\/biotechnology\\\/turning-junk-dna-into-medicine-with-haya-therapeutics-human-genome-and-fibrosis\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thermofisher.com\\\/blog\\\/biotechnology\\\/turning-junk-dna-into-medicine-with-haya-therapeutics-human-genome-and-fibrosis\\\/\",\"name\":\"Turning Junk DNA into Medicine with HAYA Therapeutics: Human Genome and Fibrosis - 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