Nurix Enters Pediatric Cancer Collaboration Sponsored by ALSF

Rare Daily Staff

Nurix Therapeutics said it is part of a collaboration sponsored by Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF), a leading funder of pediatric cancer research, to develop a drug to potentially treat aggressive childhood cancers including neuroblastoma and medulloblastoma.

Nurix, a company focused on targeted protein modulation therapeutics, will provide its extensive expertise in E3 ligases and use its proprietary DNA-encoded library to help identify small-molecule degraders of MYCN, a target previously considered undruggable.

The program is one of four that are being supported by an $18.5 million grant from Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation’s Crazy 8 initiative, which is designed to bring together world-class research talent to accelerate the pace of new cure discovery in childhood cancer.

“We believe that discovering and developing drugs that target the MYCN oncoprotein has the possibility to make a major difference in the lives of children suffering from neural derived cancers,” said Gwenn Hansen, Nurix’s chief scientific officer.

Nurix will collaborate with a global research team to bring drug discovery technology and development expertise to the effort. The program’s goal is to identify and evaluate small molecules that promote targeted protein degradation of the transcription factor MYCN to potentially drive tumor destruction. MYCN is a known driver of aggressive pediatric cancers such as neuroblastoma and medulloblastoma.

Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation (ALSF) emerged from the front yard lemonade stand of 4-year-old Alexandra “Alex” Scott, who was fighting cancer and wanted to raise money to find cures for all children with cancer. Inspiring others to support her cause, when she passed away at the age of 8 she had raised $1 million. Since then, ALSF has evolved to be one of the leading funders of pediatric cancer research in the U.S. and Canada, raising more than $200 million, funding more than 1,000 research projects, and providing programs to families affected by childhood cancer.

Photo: Gwenn Hansen, chief scientific officer, Nurix