The research will be carried out at the Department of Thoracic Head and Neck Medical Oncology, Division of Cancer Medicine, MD Anderson, by Professors Xiuning Le and Maura Gillison. Professor Gillison, a head and neck medical oncologist and molecular epidemiologist, was the first to make the association of human papillomavirus (HPV) in head and neck cancer. She is a leading expert on HPV and oral cancer. Her work also points to a crucial role for PIM and PI3K in the origin and development of certain head and neck cancers.
Dr Michael O’Neill, Director of Research and Development at Inflection Biosciences commented, “We are excited to announce this collaboration with MD Anderson. The team involved in this research are leaders in the field of head and neck cancer research and will enhance our understanding of the potential for our treatments in cancer patients.”
About PIM and PI3K in head and neck cancer
Head and neck cancers are a difficult to treat group of cancers responsible for over 300,000 deaths worldwide each year. Although these are a heterogenous group of cancers, alterations in the function of the PI3K signalling pathway are routinely observed throughout the spectrum of head and neck cancers. Elevated PIM expression is associated with squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck. High levels of PIM expression have also been found in nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) cell lines.
About Inflection Biosciences
Inflection Biosciences Ltd, based in Dublin and London, is developing small molecule therapeutics for the treatment of cancer. The company's pipeline of innovative cancer treatments was licensed from the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO). The pipeline comprises the IBL-300 series (PIM/PI3K/mTOR inhibitors) and IBL-202 (PIM/PI3K inhibitor) selected from a series of unique dual mechanism kinase inhibitors and the IBL-100 series (selective pan-PIM kinase inhibitors), currently in pre-clinical stages of development. For more information please visit www.inflectionbio.com