Delta Protein Atlas wins Rep. Al Green’s 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Texas’s Ninth District

When asked what inspired the creation of Delta Protein Atlas, Adel Sisy said, “Diseases and health conditions are the greatest global burden on human life. One of the biggest challenges to address this problem is the time and cost for new drug research and development, because taking a single therapy from discovery to approval typically spans 10 to 15 years and costs $1-2B. Despite this investment, about 90% of candidates that enter Phase 1 fail across subsequent trials, most often due to inadequate efficacy or unacceptable toxicity. This big problem highlights the need for more predictive, human-relevant development strategies.

“What inspired me to create my app is that I have a vision to address this challenge. Delta Protein Atlas can address this problem by highlighting and targeting specific proteins and mutations that are causally implicated in diseases, Delta Protein Atlas effectively lists thousands of potential drug targets, including rare genetic diseases that currently have no treatments. Drug developers can use the atlas to find targets of interest (proteins to modulate) and then leverage the structural information to guide drug design. For example, if a disease-causing mutation destabilizes a protein, a small molecule could be designed to bind and stabilize it. If a mutation blocks a protein’s active site, perhaps an allosteric activator could bypass the blockage. The atlas could also aid target prioritization: a protein associated with many diseases or many pathogenic mutations might be more critical in human biology (a high-value target). Delta Protein Atlas provides the exact mutation effects that could inform how to drug the target. In the long term, such resources contribute to the vision of precision medicine and treatments that directly address a patient’s specific genetic defect.”