Mizar S/TAR High-Throughput Platform for Identification of Senescence Altering Therapeutics

Mizar Therapeutics aims to leverage our Space/Time-Activity Relationship (S/TAR) platform, a new paradigm for target activity assays and drug discovery, for the identification of novel senotherapeutics. S/TAR’s foundational enabling technology is Mizar’s proprietary super-resolution, high-content imaging system adapted to track single molecules in living cells with minimal phototoxicity due to 6-10x greater photon efficiency. This allows us to track the spatial and temporal movements of individual target molecules in living cells at a finer scale than ever before, enabling target validation and the identification of specific changes in target activity at baseline and in response to various treatments in real-time and in a 96-well plate format. S/TAR provides a target activity assay, rather than a phenotypic one, enabling built-in target validation, enhancing mechanism of action studies, and driving more accurate structure–activity relationship modeling. This improves the accuracy and efficiency of compound screens and helps avoid costly and time-consuming mistakes due to misidentified targets. The unique advantages of the S/TAR platform make it an exceptional solution for more sensitive detection, quantification, and spatiotemporal delineation of cellular processes like senescence. In this Phase I SBIR project, Mizar will demonstrate the distinctive benefits of the S/TAR platform for the screening of countermeasures that target senescence as an approach to prevent radiation-induced health risks in astronauts.