Partnership forged for project targeting pancreatic cancer

UK-based independent drug discovery expert and research partner, Sygnature Discovery, and University College London (UCL) School of Pharmacy have formed a partnership for a £1 million pancreatic cancer research project.

The optimisation project will be based upon research from Professor Stephen Neidle’s group in the UCL School of Pharmacy, in collaboration with the UCL Drug Discovery Group, led by Dr Richard Angell, and will be funded by part of the UCL Technology Fund.

Neidle’s work has involved the design of drugs that target the function of cancer-related genes. His group has developed a novel drug that targets quadruplex structures in DNA, which are more prevalent in certain cancers than normal cells. A specific type of cancer that has been found to be affected by this targeted approach is pancreatic cancer.

The lead molecules identified by Neidle will be optimised by Sygnature, with the aim of improving the therapeutic properties of the molecules.

Dr John Unitt, Sygnature’s director of Bioscience said: “We are excited to be chosen to partner with UCL on this oncology project. As a research organisation we are always looking to apply our oncology expertise to exciting new targets like Professor Neidle’s G-Quadruplex project.

“Despite the availability of many new cancer therapies, pancreatic cancer still has a very poor outcome for patients and remains one of the most significant unmet needs in oncology,” he added. “We believe that ultimately this novel cancer therapy could offer hope to patients whose prognosis today remains very poor.”