Awen: Targeting developmental genes reactivated in cancer

Awen is building on a longstanding concept in oncology: that cancers can hijack gene programs normally restricted to early development. These embryonic pathways, typically silenced after embryogenesis, can drive tumor growth when aberrantly reactivated.

The company is both seeking to identify new cancer drivers of early developmental origin and to develop novel chemistry against a known target that has been difficult to drug. It does the former through computational database mining and the latter through a distinct, cancer-specific drug targeting approach. ...