Nurix Therapeutics part of team selected as Cancer Grand Challenges awardees

Nurix Therapeutics is part of a diverse research team of international experts selected as awardees in this year’s Cancer Grand Challenges competition. The team includes scientists, physicians and patient advocacy groups from 10 institutions in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Austria and will be led by Yael Mosse, M.D., Professor of Pediatrics and Patricia Brophy Endowed Chair in Neuroblastoma Research at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Martin Eilers, Ph.D., Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Wurzburg, Germany. The project entitled “Knocking Out Oncogenic Drivers and Curing Childhood Cancers” has the goal of developing orally bioavailable targeted protein degraders that have the potential to dramatically improve cure rates for children affected by solid tumors. In this first-of-its-kind industry/academic discovery partnership through Cancer Grand Challenges, Nurix will be making in-kind contributions to address each of the five onco-fusion targets, leveraging its DELigase technology to identify chemical starting points for drug design and providing key expertise in TPD optimization and development. Team KOODAC will focus on the development of TPDs and Molecular Glue Degraders to target five key and previously undruggable fusion proteins that have been shown to be drivers of high-risk solid tumors in pediatric patients, including, MYCN, EWSR1-FLI, DNAJB1-PRKACA, ALK, and PAX3/7-FOXO1, and conduct the preclinical studies needed for biomarker-driven clinical trials. The Cancer Grand Challenges is an initiative driven and funded by Cancer Research UK, whose goal is to facilitate identification of the greatest challenges in cancer today and to fund global teams to work in innovative ways to find solutions. This year, five teams were selected to receive funding of up to GBP 20 million over a period of five years. The funds, which will support only the academic groups involved in the project, will be managed by Team KOODAC.