The MD Anderson Cancer Center and Schrödinger, Inc. today announced a two-year strategic research collaboration focused on the development of Schrödinger’s WEE1 inhibitor program, an investigational therapeutic approach designed to target the WEE1 kinase.
The goal of the collaboration is to accelerate and optimize the clinical development path for Schrödinger’s WEE1 program through molecular biomarker-driven tumor type prioritization and patient stratification and to validate biomarkers to predict response or resistance to a WEE1 inhibitor. The joint team will seek to prioritize clinical studies of a WEE1 inhibitor as a single agent in selected cancer indications and in rational combinations for defined clinical subpopulations.
Under the preclinical collaboration agreement, Schrödinger will join forces with researchers in MD Anderson’s Translational Research to AdvanCe Therapeutics and Innovation in ONcology (TRACTION) platform. TRACTION is a core component of MD Anderson’s Therapeutics Discovery division, an integrated team of clinicians, researchers, and drug development experts.
MD Anderson and Schrödinger will jointly pursue translational studies, and Schrödinger will provide research support funding. As part of the agreement, MD Anderson is eligible to receive certain payments based on the future development and commercialization of Schrödinger’s WEE1 inhibitor compounds. Schrödinger will have sole responsibility for the development, manufacture and commercialization of all compounds and products, and sole rights to all novel intellectual property that arises from this collaboration.
WEE1 is a gatekeeper checkpoint kinase that prevents progression through the cell cycle, allowing time for DNA repair to occur before cell division takes place. Thus, inhibition of WEE1 allows for accumulation of DNA damage, triggering DNA breakage and apoptosis in tumor cells.
Schrödinger is developing tight-binding, selective WEE1 inhibitors with optimized physicochemical properties designed to be well suited for combinations with other DNA damage response therapies for the treatment of a broad range of solid tumors.
