Seaport Therapeutics announced that it has been awarded up to $15 million from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to advance GlyphCele, an investigational oral therapeutic designed to restore gut lymphatic function. The funding will support the development of the drug candidate in collaboration with the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MIPS).
GlyphCele is based on Seaport’s proprietary Glyph platform, which enables oral drugs to be absorbed through the intestinal lymphatic system rather than undergoing traditional liver metabolism. By leveraging lymphatic transport, the approach is designed to deliver therapies more directly to the immune system while improving drug bioavailability and reducing potential side effects.
The investigational therapy targets dysfunction in the gut lymphatic system, which researchers believe plays a key role in metabolic diseases and pancreatic cancer. In metabolic disease, damaged lymphatic vessels can leak fluid into abdominal fat tissue, contributing to inflammation, weight gain, and insulin resistance. GlyphCele aims to restore normal lymphatic vessel function, reduce leakage, and interrupt the cycle that drives metabolic dysfunction.
Preclinical research has demonstrated proof of concept for lymphatic-targeted COX-2 inhibition, showing potential to repair lymphatic damage, improve metabolic markers, and reverse insulin resistance. GlyphCele is designed as a Glyphed oral prodrug of the COX-2 inhibitor celecoxib and aims to deliver the therapy directly into the lymphatic system while limiting systemic exposure.
In pancreatic cancer, lymphatic networks around tumors can spread inflammatory signals that promote disease progression and metastasis. By targeting the gut lymphatic network connected to the pancreas, GlyphCele is intended to enhance local anti-tumor activity and suppress tumor spread.
The research program is part of ARPA-H’s Groundbreaking Lymphatic Interventions and Drug Exploration (GLIDE) initiative, which focuses on developing therapeutic strategies for lymphatic diseases and conditions involving lymphatic dysfunction. The collaboration with Monash builds on longstanding research in lymphatic physiology and drug transport that helped create the Glyph platform.
There are currently no approved oral medicines designed specifically to target the lymphatic system or to restore gastrointestinal lymphatic function without surgical intervention. If successful, GlyphCele could establish a new disease-modifying approach for conditions driven by lymphatic dysfunction and open the door for broader use of lymphatic-targeted therapies.
KEY QUOTES
“The work behind GlyphCele represents an opportunity to address fundamental aspects of disease biology that current treatments overlook, and we are delighted to work with ARPA-H and the Monash team to advance a program that could ultimately transform outcomes for patients across multiple complex diseases. While our internal focus remains on developing neuropsychiatric medicines, we believe the Glyph platform has broad applicability across diseases, and we’re pleased to advance its potential beyond CNS through non-dilutive funding.”
Daniel Bonner, Ph.D., Co-Founder And Senior Vice President, Platform, Seaport Therapeutics
“This program builds upon decades of scientific progress in lymphatic physiology and transport of therapeutics, but brings something truly new: a practical, patient-friendly strategy to directly correct gut lymphatic dysfunction rather than work around it. This collaboration with Seaport brings together a group that has worked closely since the earliest days of the Glyph platform, strengthening the continuity and depth of knowledge as we pursue a therapeutic approach that could meaningfully change how lymphatic-driven diseases are treated.”
Christopher Porter, Ph.D., Director, Monash Institute Of Pharmaceutical Sciences
