Dia Beta Labs are delighted to announce that we have been selected as the overall winners of the annual INVENT Competition for startup companies!

Organised by the Northern Ireland science and technology hub, Catalyst with headline partner Bank of Ireland UK, INVENT is an annual competition for early-stage start-ups and aspiring entrepreneurs to showcase their innovations to a panel of expert judges.

DBL were one of 117 companies across a diverse range of sectors to enter the competition, with the semi final conducted in June this year.

Following progression through the semi-final stage, selected companies had to pitch to a panel of 10 experts from the Northern Ireland ecosystem ahead of the award ceremony held in the ICC Belfast on Thursday 3 October 2024, where the twelve finalists competed for the main prize, with DBL triumphing overall and taking home £25,000 from the total prize fund of £55,000.

DBL’s first taste of success on the evening came in the BioBreakthorughs category for life-science startups where DBL were up against fellow Ulster University portfolio company, Galvani Tech Ltd. Pictured above is DBL’s CEO, Ryan Lafferty, receiving the award from Joann Rhodes, CEO of Health Innovation Research Alliance Northern Ireland (HIRANI).

Finalists were also given the opportunity to deliver a 1 minute elevator pitch to the approximately 500 attendees with a spot prize of £1000 for the winner by public vote. The prize on the night was taken home by deserved winners who have developed an innovative stop-gap for prevention of initial cardiac damage following a heart attack.

Of the success, DBL’s CEO Ryan Lafferty had this to say: “We are delighted to have come through INVENT as overall winners as this hugely validates the business and helps to spread the word on the positive changes we are aiming to make in management of metabolic diseases. We all know someone who is struggling with management of weight or diabetes and are unfortunately being failed by currently available options. As long as the prevalence of these conditions continues to spiral out of control, innovation in this area will be greatly needed. We would like to extend thanks to Catalyst who have provided tremendous support to us and so many others in the NI ecosystem!“

INVENT success was the icing on the cake for a particularly big week for Dia Beta Labs – more to follow on this shortly!

9th May 2024

Dia Beta Labs are delighted to announce the securing of further grant funding from the UK’s innovation agency, Innovate UK through the Northern Ireland Life & Health Sciences Launchpad! This £99K award facilitates performance of a confirmatory study for our therapeutic lead, DBL002, in female subjects.

This innovative project seeks to address gender imbalance in research at the preclinical level, which tends to prioritise the use of single-sex studies. DBL recognise the inherent flaw in this kind of archaic study design and through this project can confirm the exciting weight loss potential of DBL002 is retained in females. As such, DBL002 is demonstrated to evoke weight loss of up to 30% in male, obese rodents when combined with standard of care weight-loss therapeutics, termed GLP-1 analogues. Moreover, our data indicates that DBL002 imparts a higher quality of weight loss, sparing muscle whilst preferentially targeting fat.

GLP-1 therapies, such as Ozempic®, have changed the prescribing landscape in weight-management, becoming household names in the process. However, these therapies are not without their flaws. Firstly, they are subject to high discontinuation rates, owing to common incidences of gastrointestinal side-effects like nausea and vomiting. Indeed, it has been evidenced that 70.1% of patients on GLP-1 therapeutics discontinued within 24-months¹. Additionally, there are growing concerns over the degree of muscle wastage caused by GLP-1s², a particular concern when utilised in frail or elderly patients.

Through combination, allowing significant dosage reduction of the GLP-1 therapy, DBL002 addresses the concerns around gastrointestinal discomfort. Further, our improved quality of weight loss, alone or in combination with GLP-1s, solves GLP-1-mediated muscle loss.

It has recently been demonstrated that the incidence of gastrointestinal side effects for GLP-1 therapeutics may be more common in females than in males³, thus we now seek to address whether similar gender disparity exists for DBL002. Additionally, we seek to confirm that the exciting combination potential demonstrated with GLP-1 therapeutics in male rodents is maintained in females.

Dia Beta Labs’ CEO, Dr. Ryan Lafferty had this to say of the award: “We are delighted to have received this funding from Innovate UK to facilitate this crucial confirmatory study in females for DBL002. This project not only improves the translatability of our research but allows us to implement frameworks into our development pathways which will incorporate gender-balance at earliest stages. The Grant award also encourages collaboration and expansion of the biotech ecosystem within Northern Ireland as a whole, which DBL are also passionate in supporting.”

The project will run for 12-months between April 2024 and March 2025.

Stay tuned to our website and social channels for more updates!

References:

1. Weiss T, Carr RD, Pal S, Yang L, Sawhney B, Boggs R, Rajpathak S, Iglay K. Real-World Adherence and Discontinuation of Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor Agonists Therapy in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients in the United States. Patient Prefer Adherence. 2020 Nov 27;14:2337-2345. doi: 10.2147/PPA.S277676. PMID: 33273810; PMCID: PMC7708309.
2. https://peterattiamd.com/the-downside-of-glp-1-receptor-agonists/
3. Rentzeperi E, Pegiou S, Koufakis T, Grammatiki M, Kotsa K. Sex Differences in Response to Treatment with Glucagon-like Peptide 1 Receptor Agonists: Opportunities for a Tailored Approach to Diabetes and Obesity Care. J Pers Med. 2022 Mar 13;12(3):454. doi: 10.3390/jpm12030454. PMID: 35330453; PMCID: PMC8950819.

Following the recent approval of GLP-1R (glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor) agonist therapies for the pharmacological management of obesity over the last number of months, peptide therapies have become a particularly hot topic. Indeed, unless they had a diabetic relative using these medications most people would not have heard of semaglutide or liraglutide until relatively recently. However, as increasing numbers of reports of influencers and eccentric billionaires indicating their use of these medications (off-license for a long time it is important to note), they have become a staple topic of discussion in the mainstream media.

Given the importance of this topic in addition to the continuing prevalence of the obesity epidemic our CEO, Dr. Ryan Lafferty and DBL Scientific members, Prof. Peter Flatt and Prof. Nigel Irwin, have co-authored a publication indicating what the future may hold for these therapies in management of obesity.

You can read the article via the following link should you wish to learn more:

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14656566.2023.2192865

Happy reading!

Dia Beta Labs’ CEO, Dr. Ryan Lafferty, took the opportunity to sit down with Barry McCall, Business Editor for the Irish Times, to discuss the exciting work currently underway at DBL in the development of our disease-modifying antidiabetic therapies. You can read the full article via the following link:

https://www.irishtimes.com/special-reports/2023/04/19/taking-a-holistic-approach-to-diabetes-treatment/

The exciting times around our development are set to continue so watch this space for more!

In light of World Diabetes Day on 14th November, our CEO, Dr. Ryan Lafferty, was delighted to engage with The Health Innovation Research Alliance Northern Ireland (HIRANI) to discuss the importance of innovation in management of the condition.

You can read excerpts from the interview here and learn more about the other companies in Northern Ireland aiming to impart positive change in diabetes management. It is comforting to know we are in such good company!

Read the full article via this link: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6997865286624239616