Over the past decade cancer immunotherapy has redefined standard care in many kinds of tumor, but low response rates remain a problem and there have been some shock trial failures where checkpoint inhibitors have failed to work as expected. To help, Neobe Therapeutics Ltd. is attempting to tackle an important constituent of the tumor microenvironment, the extracellular matrix.

Nodus Oncology Ltd. is set to explore new avenues of DNA damage response by targeting the chromosome next-door neighbors of tumor suppressor genes that are damaged when tumor suppressor genes are inactivated via homozygous deletion. These collaterally deleted ‘passenger genes’ play diverse functions in cell homeostasis and so present a number of molecularly targeted vulnerabilities that can provide a route to destroying cells which carry a tumor suppressor gene.

Gate Neurosciences Inc. was first founded in 2019, but officially launched last week with two clinical-stage assets and a bold goal: to develop better drugs for CNS disorders and identify better-suited patients for those drugs. The company’s first molecular target is the NMDA receptor. Gate has acquired the rights to two NMDA receptor modulators, zelquistinel and apimostinel.

Having initiated its first two clinical trials in non-small-cell lung cancer since January, Nuvalent Inc. said it expects to unveil preliminary dose-escalation data before year-end. Ahead of the data, Nuvalent's phase I/II Arros-1 trial evaluating NVL-520, a kinase inhibitor, in patients with advanced ROS1-positive NSCLC and other solid tumors, continues to enroll participants.

Nuvectis Pharma Inc. has been in business for barely two years, but thanks to a business model involving in-licensing promising late preclinical drug candidates, it has already begun a trial with a molecule targeting a little-known pathway that cancer cells depend on for protection. The firm is also close to the clinic with a drug that could give a new twist to tyrosine kinase inhibition after a $16 million financing round in early August.

Alterity Therapeutics Ltd. has begun phase II trials with its lead candidate, ATH-434, in multiple system atrophy, a rare and highly debilitating Parkinsonian disorder.

Exploiting deficiencies in tumor cells’ inability to repair damage to their DNA has been one of the most successful endeavors of oncology research in recent memory. There are four approved PARP inhibitors to treat certain types of breast, ovarian, pancreatic and prostate cancers. Multiple other synthetic lethal combinations that might push repair-deficient tumors into cell death are being investigated. In the July 29, 2022, issue of Science, researchers at Yale University have described another approach to turning DNA repair defect against itself. Startup Modifi Biosciences Inc. is now on course to translate that work.

Increased payload capacity for gene therapies, off-the-shelf genome-engineered allogeneic cell therapies, reduced cost of goods and faster bioprocesses, are promised by “big DNA” specialist Replay Holdings LLC. The newco arrived with a $55 million seed round and having assembled a portfolio of technologies for writing and delivering large pieces of DNA.

South Korea’s Medipost Co. Ltd. is gearing up for phase III trials in the U.S. of its stem cell therapy, Cartistem, an allogeneic human umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cell therapy for treatment of knee articular damage in patients with osteoarthritis.

The technology behind one of the most high profile COVID-19 vaccine development programs has been re-engineered to correct a design fault and now forms the basis of newco Vicebio Ltd. The London-based company has shown its face for the first time following its founding in 2019 around molecular clamp technology from the University of Queensland, Australia.