Advancing Cancer Treatment
Therapeutics Discovery
Tim Heffernan, Ph.D.
Vice President and Division Head
The Therapeutics Discovery division at MD Anderson works with unparalleled proximity to patients and an unmatched wealth of clinical expertise to eliminate the bottlenecks that hamper traditional drug development, allowing us to benefit more patients to a greater degree.
We work across all classes of therapeutics, including small molecule drugs, biologics and cellular therapies, to effectively address unmet needs in oncology. Our dedicated team of scientists, clinicians, drug developers and data experts develops new therapies inspired by the needs of MD Anderson cancer patients and guided by the expertise of the institution’s world-renowned physicians.
Therapeutics Discovery doesn’t bring the “bench to bedside” — it starts with the bench at the bedside — with each patient and their cancer.
Therapeutics Pipeline
We have leveraged our unique approach to discover and advance novel therapies to answer unmet needs that will improve the lives of our patients.
Learn more about our pipelineIn the News
Stay up to date on our new collaborations and recent progress.
MD Anderson and Sibylla Biotech announce strategic collaboration to discover and develop small-molecule protein degraders
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Sibylla Biotech today announced a strategic collaboration agreement to discover and develop novel small-molecule cancer therapies known as folding interfering degraders (FIDs), which disrupt the proper folding of target proteins and lead to their degradation.
Under the agreement, Sibylla and MD Anderson will jointly conduct discovery and development work from target identification through drug candidate nomination on selected proteins, with the potential to continue further pre-clinical and clinical development. The collaboration brings together Sibylla’s Pharmacological Protein Inactivation by Folding Intermediates Targeting (PPI-FIT) technology with the drug development expertise and capabilities of MD Anderson’s Therapeutics Discovery division.
“The Sibylla team is committed to expanding the applications of our PPI-FIT technology and FIDs to provide new treatment options for hard-to-treat indications. This collaboration builds upon the progress we have achieved to date and the applicability of our technology and know-how,” said Lidia Pieri, PhD, co-founder and chief executive officer of Sibylla Biotech. “We value the opportunity to work with MD Anderson’s team of drug development experts in order to foster our vision of treating patients with high unmet medical need.”
Sibylla’s proprietary PPI-FIT technology is used to discover and develop FIDs, small molecules that induce the degradation of target proteins by interfering with the folding pathway. Notably, PPI-FIT can be applied to target proteins currently considered “undruggable” due to the absence of suitable pockets in their native state.
“Folding interfering degraders represent an exciting new modality to target key cancer drivers, and we look forward to opportunities to advance compelling candidates forward as novel therapeutic options,” said Tim Heffernan, Ph.D., vice president and head of Therapeutics Discovery at MD Anderson. “By aligning Sibylla’s innovative PPI-FIT technology with our drug development engine, we hope to create impactful new medicines that will expand options for patients in need of more effective therapies.”
By uniting scientists, clinicians and drug development experts together within MD Anderson, the institution’s Therapeutics Discovery division is designed to eliminate the bottlenecks slowing traditional drug discovery. Seamless integration with MD Anderson physicians allows Therapeutics Discovery to develop impactful cancer therapies inspired directly by patient needs and clinical insights.
Once a drug candidate is nominated, Sibylla and MD Anderson may consider further drug development, translational, and clinical activities to advance the candidate for patients in need.
Disclosure
MD Anderson has an institutional conflict of interest with Sibylla and will implement an Institutional Conflict of Interest Management and Monitoring Plan to manage this relationship.
MD Anderson and CureVac enter strategic collaboration to develop novel cancer vaccines
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and CureVac N.V. today announced a co-development and licensing agreement to develop novel mRNA-based cancer vaccines.
The collaboration creates strong synergies between CureVac’s unique end-to-end capabilities for cancer antigen discovery, mRNA design, and manufacturing and MD Anderson’s expertise in cancer antigen discovery and validation, translational drug development, and clinical research. The collaboration will focus on the development of differentiated cancer vaccine candidates in selected hematological and solid tumor indications with high unmet medical need.
"We look forward to collaborating with the team at MD Anderson to push the boundaries of mRNA technology and develop impactful therapeutic options for patients in need," said Alexander Zehnder, M.D., chief executive officer of CureVac. “In combining our respective expertise, we believe we can go further and faster to develop novel, off-the-shelf, mRNA-based cancer vaccines that have the potential to significantly improve patient outcomes.”
Both parties will contribute to the identification of differentiated cancer antigens based on whole genome sequencing combined with long- and short-read RNA sequencing and cutting-edge bioinformatics. Joint preclinical validation of the highest-quality cancer antigens will be supported by Sachet Shukla, Ph.D., assistant professor of Hematopoietic Biology and Malignancy and director of the department’s cancer vaccine program, and by MD Anderson’s ECLIPSE (Evolution of Cancer, Leukemia, and Immunity Post Stem cEll transplant) platform, part of the institution’s Therapeutics Discovery division.
“We are excited for cancer vaccines to potentially emerge as an essential therapeutic tool in the future,” Shukla said. “This collaboration with CureVac is an important milestone in our efforts and brings together complementary strengths toward our goal of developing transformative vaccines for cancer.”
Following selection of the most promising clinical-lead vaccine candidates and completion of Investigational New Drug (IND) approvals, MD Anderson will be responsible for conducting initial Phase I/II studies in appropriate clinical indications.
“Our ECLIPSE team uses proprietary high-throughput technology to identify and validate immune targets, and we are driven to advance impactful immunotherapies with the potential to transform the lives of patients with cancer,” said Jeffrey Molldrem, M.D., chair of Hematopoietic Biology and Malignancy and leader of the ECLIPSE platform at MD Anderson. “Together with CureVac, we hope to embrace this exciting area of drug discovery and development in pursuit of mRNA vaccines that will address significant unmet medical need.”
Under the terms of the collaboration agreement, CureVac and MD Anderson will jointly contribute to and support development of those programs designated to move forward. CureVac has worldwide exclusive rights to late-stage development, commercialization, or partnering of the cancer vaccine candidates. MD Anderson is eligible for certain downstream payments based on potential future commercialization.
Our Unique Model
We are a drug development engine joining industry-scale capabilities with the clinical and research expertise of MD Anderson. Our experienced teams rapidly advance new therapies across all modalities. We also collaborate with leading biopharmaceutical companies to bring new medicines to patients in need.
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