NEW YORK – Modifi Biosciences on Tuesday announced it received $2.4 million in funding from the National Cancer Institute, which it will put toward advancing its precision oncology drugs designed for cancers lacking MGMT expression.
New Haven, Connecticut-based Modifi is developing molecules that target cancer cells that don't express MGMT, a DNA repair protein.
The $2.4 million NCI grant is part of the Fast-Track Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Award program, through which NCI offers funding as well as mentoring and networking assistance to early-stage biotech startups like Modifi that could use help bringing promising technologies and therapies to market.
Modifi, a Yale University spinout, recently launched with seed funding and a collection of in vitro and in vivo data supporting its therapeutic approach for gliomas and other cancer types that have lost MGMT expression. According to Modifi, the studies demonstrated the anti-tumor activity and selectivity of their molecules for tumor tissue over normal tissue. MGMT loss has been documented in roughly 40 percent of colon cancers and 35 percent and 25 percent of small-cell and non-small cell lung cancers, respectively.
"Modifi Bio is able to quickly translate our research from bench-to-bedside because the structures of our small molecules are similar in nature to drugs that have been already tested and approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for use in humans,", Modifi Bio Cofounder Seth Herzon said in a statement. "But our molecules are critically different because they are able to overcome key resistance mechanisms in cancers. With the help of the SBIR grant, Modifi Bio is one step closer to clinical trials."