Research collaboration announced for potential new breast cancer treatments

Inflection Biosciences and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) have entered into a research collaboration aiming to understand the mechanisms of resistance to major breast cancer therapies and examine potential new treatment for patients with a cancer that is unresponsive to existing therapies.

The potential new treatments — dual mechanism PIM/PI3K inhibitors from Inflection Biosciences — are novel molecules that block two abnormal proteins, which occur in breast cancer.

“I am excited about exploring the potential use of these novel molecules in the treatment of cancer, especially breast cancer, given that they will target the abnormal proteins, PIM and PI3K, which play an important role in therapy-resistant forms of the disease,” stated leader of the research team at RCSI, Professor Bryan Hennessy, senior clinical lecturer at RCSI, a consultant medical oncologist, and adjunct professor in the Division of Cancer Medicine at MD Anderson Cancer Centre (MDACC). The early results have shown this treatment approach to be effective in breast cancer cells that have become resistant to standard of care treatments.”

Dr Michael O’Neill, director of Research and Development at Inflection Biosciences added: “Our dual acting molecules are able to treat cancer cells by targeting both PIM and PI3K pathways. This makes our compound more effective than compounds which attack either cancer pathway alone. We are delighted to have Professor Hennessy and the team at RCSI involved in this important research and their expertise will be of great benefit as we continue to develop these important treatments.”

“RCSI is delighted to announce this collaboration with Inflection Biosciences. RCSI's research strategy has a strong focus on excellence in translational research for the benefit of patients and healthcare systems,” commented director of Research and Innovation at RCSI, Professor Ray Stallings. “This partnership exemplifies how collaboration between academia and industry can help improve human health through high quality, impactful scientific research.”